Archival projects & SVU impact

Founded in 1958, the SVU was the most important organization of Czechs and Slovaks worldwide — a wholly apolitical association whose purpose was to preserve the historical traditions denied by the Communist regime. Dr. Rechcigl participated in the organization of practically all of its congresses, beginning with Washington in 1962, when the Society had some two hundred members in the United States and Canada; membership later increased roughly tenfold.

He directed the Society’s publication program, edited its Biographical Directory through eight editions with his wife Eva, helped launch the journal Kosmas, and served as President in 1974–78 and from 1994 to 2006.

On his initiative an umbrella organization was created, composed of representatives of leading Czech-American associations, to plan and coordinate the preservation of Czech cultural heritage in the United States.

The first phase of the project, coordinated with the support of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, mapped historic sites, monuments, and archival materials relating to Czech life in America. It produced two extensive publications: Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials and Czechoslovak American Archivalia.

Through his initiative a special Working Conference on Czech and Slovak American Materials and their Preservation was held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies in Washington, D.C., on 22–23 November 2003. Colleagues from the National Archives in Prague took part at his invitation.

The conference led directly to the establishment of the Czech & Slovak American Archival Consortium. Its proceedings were published in Prague in 2004.

Conferences in Texas (1997), Minnesota (1999), Nebraska (2001), and Iowa (2003), followed by ‘Czech and Slovak Heritage on Both Sides of the Atlantic’ (17–20 March 2005), co-sponsored by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad under the aegis of both the Czech and Slovak Presidents.

For a number of years Dr. Rechcigl served as SVU Archivist, organizing the Society’s substantially complete archival collection and depositing it in several prestigious repositories: the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, the University of Nebraska, Palacký University in Olomouc, and most recently the National Archives in Prague, the Náprstek Museum in Prague, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The Central Registry of archival materials of the Czech Republic includes both the SVU fund and the personal fund of Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., held in the National Archives and available to all researchers.