Vojta (Vojtěch) Náprstek (17.4.1826–2.9.1894) , filantropist from Bohemia

born 200 years ago

Náprstek supported technical progress, social activities, the modern household, electrification and the telephone. He founded the American Ladies' Club, a pioneering platform for women's education. He built ethnographic collections, founded the Czech Tourists' Club and more.

Vojtěch Náprstek was born Adalbert Fingerhut. His father Anton Fingerhut had the German name as the only one of seven siblings – the others were called by the Czech version of the name Náprstek. (The German word fingerhut and the Czech word náprstek can be translated as thimble in English.

Vojtěch and his elder brother Ferdinand, outspoken nationalists, were closely watched by the Habsburg police. After the disastrous results of the Prague Upheavals of 1848, Vojtěch left home in secret for the United States, where he finished his law studies.

He secretly fled to Milwaukee in Wisconsin, where he lived for about a decade before returning home, completing his law studies. He is considered to be the spiritual father of Czech journalism in America.

He returned to Bohemia around 1857, and resumed political activities. After his return, he labored to familiarize his fellow Czechs with American concepts, institutions, and techniques, as well as with the Native American peoples with whom he had worked

Náprstek was an advocate of progressive ideas, including general living conditions in Prague, as well as the provision of education and health care facilities and the introduction of modern technologies in public life (gas lighting and cooking, the telephone, etc.). He also co-founded, in 1888, the Czech Hiking Club (Klub českých turistů).  (from Wikipedia)

In USA Náprstek was a member of a government expedition to explore the Dakota Indians. The trip was probably the first impulse that directed him towards ethnography.

Náprstek museum, Praha

He is known today primarily as a patron of the arts, who not only acquired many ethnographic exhibits for Czech collections during his lifetime, but ultimately bequeathed all of his property to his museum, including a library with 46,000 volumes and 18,000 unique photographs.

Vojtěch Náprstek made history as the founder of the Museum of Non-European Cultures, which he opened in Prague in May 1874 under the name Czech Industrial Museum. The institution, housed in the Prague house U Halánků, was transformed into an ethnographic museum after the death of its founder in 1894. After World War II, the museum focused exclusively on non-European cultures, which is reflected in its current name: Náprstek's Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures.

House U Halánků, today Náprstek museum in Praha

To Czech ladies Náprstek introduced the sewing machine, the washing machine and other modern inventions, which supported women's emancipation.

"A woman certainly has as many talents as a man, so why shouldn't she be able to participate in the higher tasks of life, when human ingenuity frees her from all sorts of lowly occupations?!"

                                                                                                                                                            Vojta Náprstek

Thanks for reading

                                             Margaret