Edward R. Straznicky (18209 February 1876) was superintendent of the

Astor Library The Astor Library was a free public library in the East Village, Manhattan, developed primarily through the collaboration of New York City merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and bibliographer Joseph Cogswell. It was primarily me ...

1872-1876. He created the first catalogue of the library which was published in 1857.

Biography

He was born in

Tišnov Tišnov (; german: Tischnowitz) is a town in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Hajánky, Hájek, Jamné and Pejškov are administrative parts ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

, educated at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

, taking degrees in the departments of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

, and acquired by travel a familiar knowledge of modern languages. He served as an assistant professor at the Higher Educational Private Institution of Agriculture in Magyaróvár (now Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Széchenyi István University,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

) from 1846 to 1848. During the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although th ...

he served as an officer in the

Hungarian Revolutionary Army The Hungarian Defence Forces ( hu, Magyar Honvédség) is the national armed forces, defence force of Hungary. Since 2007, the Hungarian Armed Forces is under a unified command structure. The Ministry of Defence maintains the political and civil ...

. After the defeat of the nationalists he was exiled, and his property was confiscated. After a brief residence in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Straznicky went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, and found employment as a merchant in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. In 1859 he became an assistant librarian in the Astor Library in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and in 1872 he was elected superintendent, an office he held until he died. Straznicky was also the librarian (1857-1859) and recording secretary of the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows from around the ...

, a position he held until 1872.

References

* *Hugo H. Hitschmann: Verzeichniss der Lehrer und Studirenden der erzherzoglichen landwirtschaftlichen Bildungsanstalt und der k. k. höheren landwirtschaftlichen Lehranstalt zu Ungarisch-Altenburg 1818-1848 und 1850-1864. Ung. Altenburg, 1865. Druck und Verlag von Alexander Czéh. 1820 births 1876 deaths University of Vienna alumni Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to the United States Forty-Eighters Hungarian librarians American librarians {{library-bio-stub