The Czech-American Experience

No other state comes close to Nebraska in the percentage of its citizens of Czech origin. In 1993, Nebraska History published a special double issue, The Czech-American Experience, with photos, art, and a dozen articles on various aspects of Czech life and culture in the United States. It was our most popular issue in recent memory, selling out two printings. Though out of print, the issue is freely available online, in high-resolution, full-color PDFs (scroll down for a table of contents with links).

The magazine’s cover shows a detail from the proscenium curtain in the National Hall built by ZČBJ lodge Slavín 112 near Ord, Nebraska. It shows the Hradčany or Prague Castle in the capital of the Czech Republic, as seen from the Mála Strana or Lesser Town below. The curtain is one of many in Czech theatres throughout Nebraska that depict symbolic scenes important in Czech history and culture. (P. Michael Whye, NSHS C998.1-428)

Here are a few other images from that issue:

Not all family members were able or willing to emigrate. Separation was difficult. This straw-decorated box, brought to Colfax County, Nebraska, before 1869, proclaims veneration for the parents left behind: “My parents: Let live.” (Courtesy Clarkson (Nebraska) Historical Society; R. Bruhn, NSHS C998.1-663)

Rare Protestant Postilla, a book of scripture and theological discourse, published in the Czech language in 1542 and brought to Pawnee County, Nebraska, in 1893 by Josef Stepan. According to family tradition, the book was once baked inside a loaf of bread to save it from confiscation by Catholic Habsburg authorities, who sought to suppress Hussite and Protestant writings in the Czech language. (Courtesy descendants of the Stepan family. NSHS C998.1-601)

Foreign or American? The banner of the Katolický Dĕlník branch Narození Pánĕ of Dwight, Nebraska, shows the organization’s emblem on one side, and the American flag on the other. (Courtesy Catholic Workman Branch No. 32 and Assumption Parish, Dwight; NSHS C998.1-618)

Contents of The Czech-American Experience (PDFs):

Foreword by Lawrence J. Sommer  and Introduction by Bruce M. Garver

Joseph G. Svoboda, Czech-Americans: The Love of Liberty

Josef Opatrny, Problems in the History of Czech Immigration to America in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

Gregory C. Ference, Slovak Immigration to the United States in Light of American, Czech, and Slovak History

Lawrence H. Konecny and Clinton Machann, German and Czech Immigration to Texas: The Bremen to Galveston Route, 1880-1886

Zdenek Solle, Czech Political Refugees in the United States during the Nineteenth Century

Bruce M. Garver, Czech-American Protestants: A Minority within a Minority

David Murphy, Dramatic Expressions: Czech Theatre Curtains in Nebraska

Clinton Machann, Evidence of Assimilation in Pavel Albieri’s Nevasta za padesat dollaru (Bride for Fifty Dollars)

Karel Pichlik, Relationships between Czechs and Slovaks in the United States during the First World War

Ivan Dubovicky, Czech-Americans: An Ethnic Dilemma

Mila Saskova-Pierce, Czech-Language Maintenance in Nebraska

Frederick C. Luebke, Czech-American Immigration: Some Historiographical Observations

Acknowledgments