Recording Voices & Documenting Memories in the San Francisco Bay Area

The NCSML’s recent trip to California uncovered all sorts of particularly interesting historical documents and stories. Here are some of the highlights from Recording Voices & Documenting Memories most recent material-gathering expedition:



Georgina Teyrovsky’s father was a member of the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia. In this photo from 1918 he is at work as a telegraphist (sitting in the bottom row, second from left).



George Malek originally immigrated to Canada before coming to the United States to work in what was a fledgling Silicon Valley. During his interview with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, he shared this picture with us: the photo shows his mother, who was a member of a Sokol dance troupe in Czechoslovakia prior to WWII. She is the dancer in the front row furthest to the right.



Two images of Prague during the Warsaw Pact Invasion, 1968

George Skoda left Czechoslovakia in 1948. He subsequently settled in the Bay Area and worked on the Stanford Two-Mile Accelerator. He says that he was sent the photos above by a friend in Prague following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.



Peter and Hana Palecek arrived in the Bay Area in the late 1960s. Although they were married at the time, the pair arrived in the United States separately, and in totally different ways. The Paleceks both shared their stories with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories.

Excerpts from all of these interviews, and more from the NCSML’s recording trip to the Bay Area, will appear on the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s oral history web pages over the weeks and months to come.