The Vojtěch Náprstek Honorary Medal for Merit in Science Popularisation
The Vojtěch Náprstek Honorary Medal
for Merit in Science Popularisation
awarded by the Czech Academy of Sciences
The Vojtěch Náprstek Honorary Medal was established by the Academic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences on June 6, 2002, to recognise long-lasting, systematic and purposeful efforts in science popularisation.
Vojtěch Náprstek (1826–1894) ranks among the foremost promoters of the 19th century Czech National Revival. Born in Prague, he came from a long-established Prague family. Having taken part in the 1848 revolution, he was forced to flee to the USA to escape police persecution. After returning to Prague in 1858, he played a leading role in revitalising the national life of Czech society and in efforts aimed at promoting the education and culture of broad layers of society. He was a member of the Royal Czech Museum Society (in Czech “Společnost královského českého muzea”) and the Industrial Union (in Czech “Průmyslová jednota”). He travelled extensively while in exile and became acquainted with the beneficial facets of freedom, democratic principles and education. Upon his return to his homeland, he used experiences gained abroad to the benefit of his country.
Vojtěch Náprstek strove to acquaint Czech society on a broad scale with technical knowledge obtained from industrially advanced Anglo-Saxon countries, such as electrification, introduction and utilisation of gas, and also the first generation of new household tools and kitchen equipment. He organised public lectures, industrial-economic exhibitions, and he also shared considerably in the development especially of vocational and technical education of Czech people, of which he was a generous sponsor. Invaluable is his contribution to development of Czech women's liberation movement. He founded the first women's club in the Czech lands called the American Ladies! Club (“American,” meaning in this context “modern, progressive,” in Czech “Americký klub dam”) associated with organisation of popularising lectures and usage of his personal, broad-based library and his personal study materials. The famous library in the housecalled “U Halánků” became one of the largest Prague libraries available to a wide reading public. He created an industrial museum whose ethnographical collections together with his library and archives exist up to the present time. In his will, Vojtěch Náprstek wrote: “The collections bought partly by me and partly by my wife and those presented by friends and patrons from various corners of the world, as well as the library consisting of 36,000 volumes, shall be located as an integral whole in the newly built building.”
The achievements of Vojtěch Náprstek to enhance Czech cultural and public life have left indelible traces in the Czech nation. He was not only a generous and charitable sponsor of Czech culture and education; he also realistically estimated the fundamental needs and potential for the positive development of the Czech nation. He promoted national public education and technical progress with his altruistic financial support. He was a man of unquestionable moral qualities and his legacy remains relevant and inspiring.
The creator of the artistic design for the Vojtěch Náprstek Medal and its averse side is Prof. Jiří Harcuba, a renowned Czech sculptor and glass artist, (1928–2013), who was a student of Prof. Karel Štipl at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.