Date: 1890

 

Description: This dress is part of a traditional Czechoslovakian outfit worn by Czech women in the late 19th century. It belonged to the Netosek family, who came here with the flood of Southern and Eastern Europeans that came to the region from the 1890s to about the 1920s. Groups such as the Czechs and the Dutch were never as populous in this region as other groups. Some groups preferred to settle in nearby areas in Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas, which had more established Czech communities. However Sioux City did have a high population of Germans, some of which lived in Czech lands at one time. One important Sioux City Czech, Karl Haylicek, advocated for the Czech unification with Germany in the mid-1800s, years before unification would ever become an issue. The Netosek family shows up in the Sioux City as early as 1908. In the 1960s they opened a grocery store in Morningside, managed by Mary A. Netosek. Much of the official business of the store was likely conducted in the Czech language. Mary donated this dress and the accompanying head wreath to the museum in the 1970s as an example of Czech traditional dress.

 

Donor: Mary A. Netosek

 

On display