Finding Aids

Archival Collection 3: Vojtěch Preissig, 1916-2002

 

Extent

Archival Collection 3 (1916-2002) spans .5 cubic ft. in 1 box. Contains 9 folders.

Acquisition

Transfer date ca. 1980s. This collection is closed. 

Scope & Content Notes

Includes print materials from Preissig's time as head of the Printing & Graphic Arts program at Wentworth Institute (1916-1924), as well as correspondence from later Wentworth staff about collecting his materials. Materials are primarily in English and Slovak.

Biography & History 

Vojtěch Preissig was born on July 31, 1873, in Světec u Bíliny, Bohemia, now known as the Czech Republic. Preissig was raised under the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the shift towards Czech independence. The Czech peoples’ cultivation of a culture independent from the empire greatly influenced his art, and ultimately, his death. 

From 1892-1897, Preissig studied at the School of Applied Arts in Prague (UPŠ), the first state-run art school in Prague. The school was created for “promoting the unity of visual culture and the creation of modern style” amongst Czech artists. At UPŠ, Preissig was taught by well-established and respected Czech artists and historians, such as František Schmoranz, František Ženíšek, Josef Václav Myslbek, Jakub Schikaneder, Celda Klouček, Felix Jenewein, Bedřich Ohmann, Otakar Hostinský, and Karel B. Mádl. Preissig eventually became a prominent Czech fine artist alongside Jan Preisler, Stanislav Sucharda, Josef Mařatka, František Kobliha, Bohumil Kafka, and Julius Mařák. Preissig is still mentioned as a notable graduate on the school’s website. UPŠ is now known as the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague (UMPRUM). 

After graduation, he worked at type foundries and developed his skills as a graphic artist. In 1898, he moved to Paris to work with Alphonse Mucha, a well-known Art Nouveau (New Art) artist. 

By 1903, Preissig returned to Prague. There, he founded his own graphics studio and began a family. In 1901, Preissig married Irena Vanousova. They had three daughters together: Vojteska, born in 1902; Irena "Inka" Preissigová Bernášková, born on February 7, 1904; and Ivona, born in 1907. 

Preissig opened his own graphics studio and began illustrating and publishing books. This included the 1906 award-winning album, Coloured Etchings. A year later, Preissig’s prints and etchings were featured in solo exhibitions in Vienna and Prague. In 1909, he published a technical manual Barevný lept a barevná rytina (Color Etchings and Color Engravings) and created a unique system of graphic symbols for Slezske pisne (Silesian Songs). 

Preissig’s studio, however, was not very successful. In 1910, like his fellow Czech artist and mentor, Mucha, Preissig moved to the United States to pursue greater artistic success and freedom. Once in the U.S., Preissig became a freelance artist and typographer. By 1912, he was an instructor at the Students’ League of New York and Teachers’ College at Columbia University. There, Preissig was credited with introducing linoleum print techniques to the US printing market. While in New York, hand craftsmanship became increasingly important to him, and he became an active participant in the Arts and Crafts Movement. 

By 1916, Preissig had made a name for himself as a respected member of the printing community in New York. Due to his extensive industry experience, Preissig was invited to become an instructor at Wentworth Institute in Boston, under the leadership of Principal Arthur Lyman Williston. Preissig officially joined the Institute’s staff in the fall of 1916. 

Preissig’s role at the school was crucial. As an instructor and head of the Printmaking and Graphic Arts Department (PGA), Preissig oversaw all printing for the Institute. In fact, the PGA program did all Institute printing for the first 25 years of its existence, including: flyers, handouts, posters, advertisements, catalogs, dance cards, etc. 

In addition to printing for the Institute, Preissig would have been expected to teach, lead his follow PGA instructors, and uphold Principal Williston’s high standards for student instruction. Written by Williston, the school’s catalog outlines the expectations and coursework for the Printing courses: 

“THE COURSE IN PRINTING at Wentworth Institute differs from similar courses given in many of our large trade schools in its type of instruction, and in the maturity and earnestness of the students...The aim of the courses at Wentworth Institute is to start the young printer on the pathway of apprenticeship, and to inculcate in him the desire for study and self-development...There are four courses; hand composition, advanced hand composition, platen presswork and cylinder presswork...While attending Wentworth Institute, students are carefully watched and guided in the matter of scholarship, character development and attendance. Habits of reliability, honesty, initiative, skill and accuracy are formed which add materially to the value of these young men as employees...The registration fee for this course is six dollars per season of twenty-four weeks." 

From 1917-1918, Wentworth Institute operated as a military training school. Principal Williston was the driving force behind the Institute’s involvement in wartime instruction. In April 1918, U.S. Secretary of War Newton D. Baker appointed Williston as the Educational Director of Training of Drafted Men in "industrial and mechanical lines." Instructors at the Institute were expected to assist in the teaching and drilling of men for the war efforts; Preissig and his courses were no exception. 

Alongside teaching, Preissig spent much of his time during the war producing military recruitment material for the Institute, and for his own causes. During the war, Preissig would create a series of military postcards intended to be distributed amongst Czech citizens in Europe, and Czech-Americans in New York. He urged his fellow Czechs to join the independent Czech army and fight for Czech independence against the Central Powers, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

His work urging Czech volunteers to join the fight for freedom led leading members of the Czech resistance abroad to visit him and his family while they lived in Boston. These resistance fighters included TG Masaryk, Edvard Beneš, and MR Štefánik. The Preissig family lived at 258 Lamartine Street, Jamaica Plain while he was employed at Wentworth. The home was included as a part of his employment package. 

It was the war effort and the creation of these postcards that led Preissig to develop his most iconic font: the Preissig Antiqua. This font was created specifically for the Czech language. Previously, other typographers used German typefaces and added additional diacritical marks as the language needed. 

After the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Williston and Wentworth Institute forged ahead with a progressive war-related initiative. In 1919, Wentworth ran free four-month courses to reintegrate veterans into productive civilian lives. These veterans slept in the barracks still in place from the Institute's 1918 training programs. Williston directed the men toward fields where demand was outpacing supply, such as printing, pattern making, and plumbing. Dozens of the participants were physically disabled. Preissig’s classes played an integral part in the reintegration of men into jobs after the war. 

Additionally, at least 14 women attended classes at Wentworth Institute under Preissig at this time. These women were already accomplished printers and helped to print many of the military posters from Preissig’s workshop. Their original enlistment posters were distributed around the country to favorable reception. Of these women, Preissig said, “Women are making of printing not a trade, but an art.” These women are credited with being the first in the country to pursue graphic arts at a technical institute. Currently, we know one by name: Mary C. Thurston. Mary was the head of the art department of Brookline High School while studying under Preissig. 

In 1920, Preissig began a letter correspondence with prominent traditional, hand papermaking expert Dard Hunter. They exchanged at least 46 letters between January 1920 and November 1925. Preissig originally reached out to Mr. Hunter to purchase paper for the book he was attempting to publish while at Wentworth Institute. These letters show a growing professional relationship; ultimately culminating in Preissig attempting (and failing) to get Mr. Hunter a job in the PGA Department at the Institute. These letters also illustrate some of Preissig’s thoughts about his career at the Institute, the printing facilities, and his relationship with the school’s administration and Principal Williston. In his letters, Preissig wrote the following about his experience at Wentworth:  

March 30, 1920 - “I came to Wentworth Institute with the hopes of accomplishing in proper surroundings a good deal more than I could previously, but find the authorities, while extremely sympathetic and willing, rather slow moving, and war interference not a sufficient excuse for many delays.” 

November 28, 1921 - “I am also disturbed in my mind not having heard from Mr. Williston the result of the meeting of the Board of Directors on Nov. 15...But if Mr. W’s authority and ability involved in the question are seen in this light, a condition is revealed to me that sooner or later will bring about my resignation here...I would not blame the Directors for centering their attention in the financial interests of the Institute.”   

December 9, 1921 - “I met Mr. Williston the previous Friday, Dec. 2. He had no word to say of you or our plans, seemed extremely concerned with silly routine things and I gave it all up in disgust...I feel positively slighted...in conversation it is difficult to make him listen long. I am in fact tendering him my resignation. I cannot be head of a department only to be the tool or fool of a principal.” 

June 12, 1922 - “There is an element of doubt in my position here because of the work Mr. Williston wants me to do next year, and I do not yet know whether I will print my book at Wentworth or elsewhere. I hope to get the decision this week.”  

July 16, 1922 - “I am to remain for at least another year at Wentworth. There will be the next season an advanced class in printing...I must confess to you that I have been influenced to stay by certain facilities here for my personal work which may not be provided elsewhere, and I am anxious to have my work on the book now not halted.” 

February 24, 1923 - “I wonder whether last time I expressed myself precisely enough regarding my new “position” here. I am still with the Wentworth Institute, but instead of the rather very disappointing and really meaningless block printing and etching classes that accommodated just a bunch of dilettante and fadists, I have now the regular courses in typographic design...I hope to get results that will count in professional circles as graphic art...The story is Mr. Williston’s adaptation of the plan for use in the catalogue, quite stereotypical, and does not exactly indicate my conception and not at all my handling of the problem.”  

July 22, 1923 - “The situation at Wentworth has somewhat improved since I wrote you in May.  

March 23, 1924 - “At Wentworth things are upset, a new principal has taken the reins.”   

May 11, 1924 - “You probably have heard in New York that I am quitting Wentworth. The policy of the new principal calls for a low type of instructors.”   

June 14, 1924 - “I am engaged in moving my belongings from Wentworth - there is such an accumulation in eight years...Certain facilities I had at the Institute I will miss, and it may change the course of my activities. But I decided to stay for some time to come in Boston.” 

Regardless of his love for the Institute’s printing facilities, Preissig officially resigned from Wentworth Institute in May of 1924. Mr. John E. Mansfield replaced him as the head of the department. Preissig never finished his book.  

Preissig returned to New York in late 1925, where he continued to work on commissions and other personal projects. For the next five years, he worked with the Butterick Publishing Company and later named one of his typefaces after the company. He also continued working with and publishing through the Slovak State Printing Works. 

By this time, most of Preissig’s family had already returned to Prague. Inka and her sisters returned to Czechoslovakia in 1921 to live with their aunt. In 1925, at age twenty-one, Inka married her cousin, František Bernášek. Preissig and Irena did not approve of the marriage. Preissig cut off all contact with Inka for four years, until his own return to Prague, and their shared interests in the rebellion, reconnected them. 

After Preissig's return to Prague in August of 1931, he revived his private graphics studio and renewed his printing license. There he continued to work on further commissions, personal projects, and exhibitions. It is during this time Preissig designed and illustrated his best-known work in the English-speaking world: Aucassin and Nicolete for George Macy's Limited Editions Club. 

Preissig became an outspoken member of the resistance, publisher of the anti-Nazi publication, V boj (Into Action, Into Battle, or In the Fight), and arch-opponent of the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by the German army. 

By 1938, Inka, Preissig’s second daughter, joined him in the resistance. Inka became involved after Preissig’s publishing partner, policeman Josef Škalda, was arrested. She became the responsible editor, publisher, printer, administrator, expeditor, and vendor of V boj. Inka rewrote the texts on a typewriter and distributed her copies while Preissig, who was a member of the editorial board, painted the covers and did translations. With every issue made, a copy was sent as a provocation to the Gestapo. In 1939, Preissig and Inka published V boj out of her apartment in Prague. 37 issues of the magazine were published under her co-leadership.  

The Gestapo arrested Inka on September 21st, 1940, in Prague. During three days of interrogations, Inka claimed all responsibility for the production of V boj. She saved many associates from arrest. However, her immediate family was arrested.  

On March 5th, 1942, Inka was convicted and sentenced to death. She was executed via guillotine in the Plötzensee Prison in Berlin on August 26th, 1942. Inka became the first Czech woman sentenced to death by the Nazis. Her last words were: "And the Czechoslovak Republic will be!" Inka’s husband, František (Eduard) Bernášek, died in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. For her role in the resistance, Inka was posthumously awarded the Czechoslovak War Cross in 1946, and a Medal for Bravery in 1998. 

Shortly after Inka’s arrest, Preissig was captured by Nazis for his role in publishing the underground resistance journal V boj. Preissig was imprisoned at the Dachau concentration camp, where he was forced to work on counterfeit currency for the Nazi regime. On June 11, 1944, Preissig died of typhus in Dachau Concentration Camp.  

For his role in the resistance, Preissig was posthumously awarded the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, class II in 1992. His art was commemorated by the Czech government in a stamp series in 1988, 1994, and 1998. 

Preissig’s legacy endures through his typographic contributions, including Preissig Antiqua, and his influence on modern Czech graphic design. Preissig’s innovations in book arts, illustration, and typography continue to shape contemporary design and historical scholarship on Czech visual culture. 

Copyright 

Per the Archives Charter (1988): “Any record, in any format, produced by an employee of the Institute while performing an official Institute function, is the property of the Wentworth Institute of Technology.” Upon copyright transfer, all items become the permanent property of Wentworth Institute of Technology University Archives and are to be used in preserving and presenting the history of Wentworth Institute of Technology. 

Access

Access is not restricted. Some materials are in Slovak.   

Processed By 

Ashley Bryan, 2024-2025; Lauren Garcia, 2025; Pia Romano, 1996-2019; Mary Ellen Flaherty, 1985-2005. 

Processing Notes

Staples and other metal materials were removed. Any plastic, rubber band, or taped material was separated from paper (when able to be separated without damaging the materials) and discarded. Duplicate, non-unique copies of materials were withdrawn from the collection. Acidic or photographic materials were kept in their original order but were re-housed in mylar sleeves or leafing folders. Duplicate folders were re-labeled, re-organized, and re-foldered. Materials were kept in the original folder order: alphabetical by topic, and then chronological within specific folders. Folders were placed in new letter document boxes.  

Citation

Include at least the following information:

Folder Name, date (Month, year), AC 3, Box number, Folder number, Vojtěch Preissig Collection, Wentworth Institute of Technology University Archives, Boston, MA. URL if applicable. 

This collection has been digitized. Any folder contents that are linked to the digital collections have been digitized. All available scans can be found at: https://wit.access.preservica.com/portal/en-US.

Last updated on: June 2025