The Czechoslovak classroom

"Education is the workshop of humanity." Thomas Garrigue Masaryk

    Memories of a Slovak farmhouse and country church, men who have contributed to the nation's centuries-old culture, and one of the world's oldest universities are evoked by the Czechoslovak Room. The words Pravda Vitezi (truth will prevail) proclaim the motto of the Czechoslovak Republic.

    Prague artists Karel and Marie Svolinsky painted the beamed larch ceiling with botanically accurate flowers and plants familiar to every Czechoslovak. Their "tree of life" design surrounds the text of the proclamation by Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, which marked the founding of the University of Prague in 1348. Murals depicting miraculous trees bearing flowers and fruits, and harboring animals, birds, and insects, decorate the plaster reveals of the bay window area.

    Ceiling panels portray eight famous persons in Czech and Slovak history from the 9th through 19th centuries. A portrait in bronze relief of Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, President-Liberator of Czechoslovakia, dominates the front wall. A letter written by him to students at the University of Pittsburgh, recalling Komensky's belief that "education is the workshop of humanity," rests in a wrought-iron case near the bay.

   Intarsia (wood inlay) on the professor's desk depicts university academic disciplines. Fine embroidered lace, Bohemian crystal, and other treasures are displayed with the room's archives in the wall cabinet.