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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Telegraf (Baltimore, Md.) 1909-1951

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About Telegraf (Baltimore, Md.) 1909-1951

Vaclav Joseph Shimek established the weekly Telegraf newspaper in 1907 to serve the more than 15,000 Czech-speaking residents of Baltimore, Maryland. Shimek was a local Democratic politician and businessperson known as the Mayor of Little Bohemia. As the owner of Bohemia Hall in East Baltimore, Shimek fostered organizations in a community that the Baltimore Sun described as “orderly, industrious, congenial and brave.” The Telegraf editorially supported women’s suffrage and urged its readers to buy liberty bonds during World War I. The emergence of an independent Czechoslovakia as an outcome of the Treaty of Versailles ending the war was a source of great pride to the local community. Beginning in 1929, the Telegraf‘s long-term editor was the Reverend Frank Novak of the Moravian Presbyterian Church. In addition to his congregants, the Telegraf was read by members of St. Wenceslaus Church, the fourth largest Catholic parish in the city. The publisher, August Klecka, was a Baltimore City Council member and Democratic Party leader.

The Telegraf chronicled the maturation of Baltimore’s Czech community as it moved beyond the status of recent immigrants. The garment industry was the initial employer of many Czech men and women. In the late 1930s, World War II production industries in Baltimore attracted Czech coal miners from Pennsylvania, many of whom settled in the Curtis Bay neighborhood. Germany’s seizure of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia in 1938 caused an outpouring of consternation and patriotic support for America’s eventual entry into the conflict. After the war, a sense of normalcy returned as veterans joined a Bohemian duckpin bowling league and took advantage of G.I. Bill benefits to reestablish their lives. A major advertiser in the paper was National Bohemian Beer, a brand still fondly remembered by native Baltimoreans. By 1951, many in the community had dispersed into the suburbs and the need for a Czech-language paper diminished. With declining subscriptions and obsolete printing equipment, the Telegraf was dissolved by Bohemian-American Publishing Company in December 1951. The Telegraf‘s final editor was Anthony Cihlar.

Provided By: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Telegraf (Baltimore, Md.) 1909-1951

Dates of Publication

  • 1909-1951

Created / Published

  • Baltimore, Md. : Čes.-Am. vydavatelské družstvo

Headings

  • -  Czechs--Maryland--Newspapers
  • -  Czechs
  • -  Maryland--Baltimore
  • -  Baltimore (Md.)--Newspapers
  • -  Maryland
  • -  United States--Maryland--Baltimore

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Began with Feb. 20, 1909 issue?
  • -  -roč. 43., čís. 50 (28. pros. 1951) = Běžné čís.-2236.
  • -  Available on microfilm from The Center for Research Libraries.
  • -  In Czech.
  • -  Description based on: Roč. 9., čís. 44 (8. pros. 1917).

Medium

  • volumes

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83045434

OCLC Number

  • 9483768

ISSN Number

  • 2771-4500

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Telegraf Baltimore, Md. -1951. (Baltimore, MD), Jan. 1 1909. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83045434/.

APA citation style:

(1909, January 1) Telegraf Baltimore, Md. -1951. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83045434/.

MLA citation style:

Telegraf Baltimore, Md. -1951. (Baltimore, MD) 1 Jan. 1909. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83045434/.