These individuals lent the following items. It might be noted that most of them are Czech Heritage Society members.

Willa Mae Cervenka of Waco: mixing bowl.

Mary Jane & Andrew Heard of Fredericksburg: ice cream freezer, six coffee, syrup and shortening cans, meat grinder, poppy seed grinder, food ricer, flour sifter, rolling pin, wooden spoon, large fork, baster, tea kettle, aluminum roaster, four yeast, cheese and fruit boxes, two graters, juicer, Cocomalt shaker, aluminum salt and pepper shakers, two granite ware roasters, two aluminum pans, washboard, bar of Octagon soap, eight clothes pins, crock with cover, three enamel and granite ware pots, enamel cup, enamel bucket, three enamel kettles, two enamel pans, ironing board, two gallon jars, four canning jars, baby chick water jar, glass measuring pitcher, two serving bowls, syrup pitcher, match holder, trivet, three cloth sacks, glass bowl, sunbonnet, two aprons, two cook books, eight recipe pamphlets.

Edna & Josef Janak family of Beaumont: kitchen clock, set of silverware for six, glass cake stand, crockery bowl, stove shovel, kerosene lamp, enamel cup, covered glass dish, coffee mill, cuspidor.

Robert Janak of Beaumont: set of Blue Willow dishes for six, 1935 wall calendar, liquid fuel iron, wooden butter mold, enamel coffee pot.

Mary Jane & William Kocurek of Richmond: cupboard, rocking chair.

Anna & Ed Krpec of Houston: glass butter churn, crock with stomper.

Michael Krpec family of Wharton County: cabbage shredder.

Edith Lambeth of Dayton: wood stove.

Nelsonville Community: potato masher, two angel food cake pans, muffin pan, cake pan, pie pan, milk strainer, two cast iron skillets, crockery bowl, two canning jars, kitchen scale.

Anita & Joseph Theriot of Shiner: wall telephone, enamel bucket, dipper, pie safe.

Cecilie Vajdos of Karnes City: wooden bench.

Ladislav Zezula of San Antonio: wooden table, two ladder back chairs, sausage stuffer.

Many of the kitchen items were lent to the Institute by Mary Jane and Andrew Heard of Fredericksburg. Mary Jane was born to the Kraitchar family of Caldwell. All of the items that she lent came from Caldwell’s historic Kraitchar House. This was her grandparents’ home, and today it is restored as a museum operated by the Burleson County Historical Association.

It was decided not to include an icebox in the exhibit, because most farm kitchens in the 1930’s did not have them. People kept products that they needed cool in the well or in a room under the cistern.

The idea of using a farm kitchen as the centerpiece of the Czech exhibit came in a telephone conversation I had with Richard Garza. He told me that Edith Lambeth of Dayton had an old wood stove that she was willing to lend to the Institute. The idea came to me, "Why not create a whole kitchen." After all, foods are one of the best-preserved examples of Texas Czech culture. Everyone knows about kolaches. Even people without a drop of Czech blood in them go to a doughnut shop, order klobasniky and think that they are eating kolace.

Most of my inspiration for the kitchen came from my Great Aunt Mary Elstner’s kitchen near Weimar. Aunt Mary cooked on a wood stove, and I have many wonderful memories of sitting at her kitchen table eating homemade toasted bread spread generously with butter she made from the milk of her own cows and dewberry jam she fixed in that very kitchen. And she made the best chicken noodle soup! I also turned for information to my mother, Edna Janak, who was brought up on a farm also near Weimar.

Because of other projects underway, work on the Czech farm kitchen probably will not begin before this summer. The changing of the Czech exhibit has been a long time in coming, but we hope that it will be worth the wait.