On 20–21 October 2021, the Museum of Jindřichův Hradec along with the National Museum and the Methodological Centre for Book Culture and Literary Museums at the Museum of Czech Literature organised a conference from the series Knižní kultura 19. století – Periodická paměť [Book Culture of the 19th Century – Periodic Memory]. The Jindřichův Hradec weekly newspaper Ohlas od Nežárky celebrated the 150th anniversary in 2021, so the organisers chose 19th century periodicals as the main theme. The aim of the meeting was to comprehensively study the 19th century periodicals, to develop cooperation between memory, academic and research institutions, and to continue systematic research into the history of book culture in the Czech lands in the 19th century.
The thematic areas covered the temporal and terminological definition of the topic, the division of the periodical press and readership. Some scholars also focused on the periodical press as a mass medium of the 19th century and chronicles of everyday life. Finally, there were papers on the transformation of the periodical press in the 19th century with the advent of new technologies and the restoration and digitization of periodicals from this period.
Hana Sedláčková from our team presented her paper Reflexe prezentace podnikatelských aktivit tří generací rodiny Liebiegů na stránkách dobového tisku [Reflection on the presentation of the business activities of three generations of the Liebieg family in the pages of the period press]. Building on previous genealogical research, the paper focused on the development of the entrepreneurial activities of the Liebieg family during the 19th century in the pages of the contemporary press and attempted to capture the forms of presentation of the entrepreneurial family in the context of its social rise. The aim of the presentation was to capture the Liebieg family from a different perspective – through the contemporary press, which allows, at least to some extent, to reconstruct the media image of the “cotton barons” against the background of contemporary phenomena.