Digital Heritage

Legacy of Mato Lovrak at the Croatian School Museum

Project authors

Anita Zlomislić and Sanja Nekić

 

Text author

Sanja Nekić

 

Recorded and edited by

Marko Milovac

 

Copyright: Croatian School Museum, Zagreb, 2023

 

The project was funded by the City Office for Culture and Civil Society

 

 

 

As a specialized museum, the Croatian School Museum keeps materials concerning the history of school education and pedagogy in Croatia, including legacies of teachers and pedagogists. These include well-known names such as Milka Pogačić, Jagoda Truhelka, Davorin Trstenjak, Dragojla Jarnević, Mato Lovrak, Grigor Vitez, Nada Iveljić

In terms of completeness, diversity and quantity, Mato Lovrak’s legacy is one of the most valuable legacies of children’s teachers-writers.

Mato Lovrak was born on 8 March 1899 in Veliki Grđevac, a village near Bjelovar, in a family of six, to father Mate, a tailor, and mother Ana.

He completed 4-grade primary school in his home village and, after four grades of junior realgymnasium in Bjelovar, he enrolled in a teacher education school in Zagreb. He passed his graduation exam in 1919 and, according to the laws applicable at the time, proceeded to take his final exam in 1923 after working as a trainee teacher for two years and was awarded a primary school teacher degree. Throughout his career spanning thirty-five years, he worked as a teacher in Kutina, Klokočevac, Veliki Grđevac and Veliki Zdenci, as well as the primary school on Selska cesta in Zagreb from 1934. He retired in 1954.

Lovrak lived with his family at No. 4 Kazališni trg, presently Trg Republike Hrvatske, in the building of the Croatian Teachers Home, the same building that has housed the Croatian School Museum since its establishment in 1901. Multiple associations with children, schools, education and upbringing, as well as virtual physical proximity to a specialized school museum, led the Lovrak family to donate the legacy of teacher and author Mato Lovrak to the Croatian School Museum. Donated by Lovrak’s daughter Đurđica Lovrak Vujasinović, the first part of his legacy was delivered to the Museum in 1977 and 1978. The second part of the donation was presented in 2018 by the author’s granddaughter Ms. Jagoda Hodak. This is a heterogenous donation and is kept in almost all CSM’s collections, while some of it is constantly presented to the public as a separate unit in a room faithfully imitating the setting of Mato Lovrak’s den. The furniture – cabinets, desk, chairs, an armchair to rest in and some of the utility items contained in the cabinets comprise the authentic setting in which Lovrak worked and created. The cabinets also contain his personal belongings such as a camera, medals, awards and recognitions (Matica hrvatska medal, Mlado pokoljenje award and many others). His personal items are placed on the desk: glasses, a lamp and stationery, whereas the wall is decorated by a portrait and some front pages featuring Lovrak’s works and their illustrations.

However, most of the donation is comprised of Lovrak’s personal library, which is maintained as a separate unit. It includes a total of 482 books, 182 of which are editions (first editions and reprints, translations) of Lovrak’s novels. The rest are mostly literary works, including the first translations of globally popular children’s novels: Dot and Anton, The Flying Classroom, The Paul Street Boys.

As early as 1924, as a young teacher, Lovrak published in first story titled Strašan san (A Terrible Dream) in Smilje. He continued to publish other similar short literary-methodological works in the 1920s and 1930s in pedagogical magazines. His first book, a collection of stories titled Slatki potok (A Sweet Stream) (manuscript), was published in 1930. After only three years, his very best and most popular children’s novels were published: Deca Velikog sela (Children of the Big Village) (its first edition was published in Belgrade), later renamed to Vlak u snijegu (A Train in Snow), and Družba Pere Kvržice (Gang of Pero Kvržica). Until the 1970s, more than twenty editions of Družba were published. His most recent work includes a biographical trilogy: Slamnati krovovi (Straw Roofs), Gimnazijalac (Gymnasium Student) and Preparandist (Prep School Student), published between 1963 and 1972.

The second part of the donation, which is not exhibited but is available to the public, includes books, original photographs (portraits, family photographs, photographs from his youth, group photographs with students and peers), as well as particularly valuable manuscripts kept in the Archival Collection of the Croatian School Museum as Croatian School Museum Personal Fond in 37 archival boxes. These materials were created in the course of Croatian School Museum’s life, education and professional activity, between 1909 and 1974. His manuscripts, written by hand or machine between 1930 and 1972, are the most interesting materials. In 2018, Lovrak’s granddaughter Ms. Jagoda Hodak donated ot CSM original manuscripts of Lovrak’s most popular and widely read children’s novels Vlak u snijegu, Družba Pere Kvržice (originally titled Pero Kvržica među ljudima (Pero Kvržica among People)) and Neprijatelj br. 1 (Enemy No. 1). The legacy also includes other manuscripts of famous novels and stories, totaling more than 200 handwritten and typewritten titles. It is interesting to note that Lovrak handwrote his materials in notebooks, after which they were copied by typewriter.

The preserved original illustrations for some of Lovrak’s works, created by Andrija Maurović, Danica Rusjan, etc., are also noteworthy.

As CMS maintains the legacy of one of the most successful teacher-writers in Croatian children’s literature, whose works are still required reading for students, an encounter with Lovrak in his authentic setting is a special experience for each visitor, inevitably bringing about recognition, curiosity and interest, whereas the preserved materials provide multiple opportunities for exploration, insight and information about his life and the times he lived in.

In addition, the Croatian School Museum organizes pedagogical-museum workshops relating to Mato Lovrak Let’s Illustrate Lovrak’s Novels and A Train in Snow, where each participant created their own dedicated souvenir based on Lovrak’s legendary novels – a magnet, picture book or cartoon.

 

 

 

Datum objave: 07.10.2024.