Guide to the Peter Huska Papers 1928-1939 MG 1672

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Descriptive Summary
Biographical Note:
Scope and Content Note
Access Points
Administrative Information
Bibliography

Container List

Huska Correspondence

Finding aid encoded by Julia Telonidis. July 2006. Production of the EAD 2002 version of this finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Finding aid written in English.

Biographical Note:

Peter Huska, a Slovakian immigrant, resided at 87 Hopkins Place, Irvington, NJ, from the late 1920s through the 1930s. At the time of his immigration, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were a unified republic. Peter Huska’s family lived in the village of Smrecany, which is currently located in the Liptovský Mikuláš District of the administrative Region of Zilina. When the Kingdom of Hungary ruled the area, the Liptovský Mikuláš district was part of Liptov (Liptó) county. Currently, Liptov may still be used as an informal designation to refer to the area of the former Hungarian county.

The large-scale immigration of Slovaks into the United States began in the late 1870s. From the 1880s to the mid 1920s, approximately 500,000 Slovaks moved to the United States, and two-thirds of these immigrants were men. The majority left for economic reasons and settled in industrial areas to work as unskilled laborers in steel manufacturing or coal mining. More than half settled in Pennsylvania; many others settled in Ohio, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. Low immigration quotas for Eastern Europeans, in effect from the late 1920s to the 1960s, subsequently slowed the movement of Slovaks into the U.S.

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Scope and Content Note

The collection includes seven complete items of received correspondence (folders 1-2, 1928-1939), six empty envelopes (folder 3, 1920s-1930s), and a loose memo and note (folder 4, not dated) that document communication between immigrant Peter Huska and his family in Smrecany, Slovakia. It is likely that the loose note was sent as an insert with one of the letters.

The items are written in Slovakian. Three letters, as well as the memo, have been translated into English, and those translations are provided alongside the originals. The letters deal largely with family affairs such as marriages, employment opportunities,
and travels; they also allude to difficult living conditions and immigration to America. One letter, sent from Yugoslavia, mentions pitching a film idea to MGM Studios. The topics covered in the un-translated letters are not known.

The majority of the empty envelopes are addressed to Peter Huska in Irvington, NJ. Two envelopes (one from Slovakia and one from Hungary) are addressed to Susie Mudron in Ridgefield Park, NJ, and New York, NY. The envelope from Hungary contains writing on the inside of the envelope. Another envelope, sent from Karlsbad (Karluvy Vary), Czechoslovakia, is addressed to Fran Joseph Kahn in Germany.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Manuscript Group 1672, Peter Huska Papers, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Hon. Vito Bianco, 2004.

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Bibliography

Alexander, June G. “Slovak Diaspora.” Slovakia.org. <http://www.slovakia.org/sk-american.htm> 25 July 2006.

“Liptov.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 20:12 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liptov=62429375>
25 Jul 2006

“Regions of Slovakia.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10:58 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Regions_of_Slovakia=56477903>
25 July 2006.

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