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Czech and Slovak Collections at the Library of Congress

Czech-Americans and Slovak-Americans

Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. Czech dolls, including some donated by the Czech embassy in Washington, D.C., displayed at the Czech Heritage Museum & Genealogy Center in Temple, Texas. June 9, 2014. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room.

Among the sources relating to the life of the Czech-Americans and the Slovak-Americans are two collections of personal papers in the custody of the Manuscript Division that offer a variety of original materials:

  • The Thomas Capek Papers, a collection of nearly 5,000 manuscripts, letters, documents, books, and periodicals assembled over many years by the noted Czech-American writer and activist (1861-1950).
  • The Edward O. Tabor Papers, a collection of documents (about 3,000 items) connected with the activities of the Pittsburgh lawyer prominent in Czechoslovak-American affairs from 1918 to 1948.
  • The Jan Papánek Papers, a collection of 3,400 letters, reports, speeches, photographs, etc., pertaining primarily to the democratic Czechoslovak government-in-exile during World War II and the immediate postwar years.

Especially valuable among the periodicals published by Czechs and Slovaks in the United States is the complete run of the newspaper Slavie, which was published in Racine and Chicago from 1861 to 1918 (18 microfilm reels). For the period during and after World War I, two ethnic newspapers are of great interest: Denní hlasatel, published in Chicago (1941-85, 166 reels) and Newyorské listy, published in New York (1940-66, 47 reels).