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National Czech & Slovak Museum awarded $117,000 grant

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded $116,699 to the flood-ravaged National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's office announced today.

The museum, which was heavily damaged during last month's flooding, has just begun its rebuilding efforts. Sen. Harkin is chairman of the Senate panel that funds federal museum and library programs.

“The Czech and Slovak museum is a national treasure and I will do all I can to ensure that they are able to fully recover from the flooding that hit Cedar Rapids,” Harkin says in a press release. “People travel from all over the world to visit the museum and this funding will preserve the oral history of our early immigrants.”

Gail Naughton, the Czech & Slovak Museum CEO, says the grant could not have come at a better time.

"The work with our national audience can be done while we are in the process of recovery after the flood," she says. "A grant like this, coming at a time like this really gives us the heart to go on.”

The museum will use the funding to support "Recording Voices and Documenting Memories of Czech- and Slovak-Americans," a national oral history project designed to capture the personal and family stories as well as the community history of early immigrants and their decedents.