From Prague to Australia: the lost photographs of Jiří Viktor Daneš, Czechoslovakia’s first consul down under
Jiří Viktor Daneš is a name many Czechs may not recognize today. He was a geographer, explorer, and diplomat who set out for Australia in 1920 as Czechoslovakia’s very first consul on the continent. During his travels across Australia, and later through the Pacific, Japan, and Canada, he took thousands of photographs—capturing landscapes, people, and everyday life along the way.
Those photographs, rescued and painstakingly restored after being severely damaged in the floods of 2002, have now been brought together in a newly published book, Around the World: The Flooded Photographic Diary of Jiří Viktor Daneš. Radio Prague International spoke with one of its authors, historian Tomáš Pavlíček.
To start off, who exactly was Jiří Viktor Daneš?
"Jiří Viktor Daneš was the first consul of the new Czechoslovak state in Austria and later in Sydney, but he was also a traveller, explorer, and scientist.
"He was born in 1880 in the small town of Nový Dvůr near Pavlov, close to Kladno. From early childhood he was fascinated by distant countries, reading travelogues, literature, and studying maps.
"Together with his mother, he attended lectures and exhibitions at the Vojta Náprstek Museum. His mother was active in the American Ladies’ Club, which strongly influenced his worldview.
"He later studied geography in Prague and became a scientist."
So he was always fascinated with travel and far-off countries …
"Yes, from his early childhood. His interest in travel deepened during his university years in Prague, at the Czech university. Daneš travelled with fellow students and often with his mother.
"He also benefited from a solid financial background thanks to his father’s inheritance, which allowed him to organize study trips for himself and other young scholars. These early journeys were often focused on cave exploration in the Balkans, a region he particularly loved."
As early as 1904, he travelled overseas for the first time to attend a geographical congress in Washington. What impact did that trip have on him?
"For any young scholar, participation in such an international congress was extremely important. As part of the program, participants visited significant geological and geographical sites, including places like the Grand Canyon.
"This journey had a strong impact on Daneš’s career. It also helped him build international contacts and cooperation with foreign scientists, which later became an important part of his professional life."
Just a few years later, he set off on a remarkable voyage to Australia, where he eventually became the first Czech diplomat on the continent. How did that come about?
"This is quite interesting, because Daneš was originally a specialist in the Balkan region. Despite that, together with his colleague, the botanist Karel Domin, he organized a research expedition to Java and Australia in 1909 and 1910.
"Thanks to his pre-war international experience, Edvard Beneš and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saw Daneš as a suitable person to help organize new Czechoslovak diplomatic relations in a very distant part of the world, where the Czech presence was very small."
What do we know about the journey itself, given that traveling to Australia was quite unusual at the time?
"We know of other Czech or Bohemian German travellers who went to Africa or Australia, but they usually visited well-known places. Daneš and Domin, however, deliberately wanted to explore less-known locations.
"Domin focused on botany, while Daneš concentrated on geography and cave systems. Daneš was even able to correct certain Australian maps of specific locations, which was very valuable for local geographers.
"Through this work, he established strong scientific cooperation with researchers in Australia and New Zealand, even before the First World War."
He later became Czechoslovakia’s first Consul General. How was he accepted in Australia?
"Daneš described his contacts and experiences in his travelogue Three Years by the Pacific Ocean (in Czech Tři léta při Tichém oceánu). He wrote about professors he had met before the First World War, as well as Australian politicians, including ministers and prime ministers.
"Many of them praised Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš, whom they had met in the United States or France during the war. They were pleased to welcome the first Czechoslovak consul.
"At the same time, Daneš was not uncritical. In his writing about post-war Australia, he commented on how the state was organized and described the economic and social problems of such a vast country struggling after the war."
During his travels, he also created a detailed photographic diary. What do these photographs reveal today?
"Daneš took photographs with a clear purpose. As a scientist, he used images for research, for articles and travelogues after his return, and for lectures at the university and public presentations.
"During his journeys, he carried a tripod and a camera with two lenses. He focused on nature, mountains, forests, and rural landscapes, but also on what we might call social geography. He photographed Indigenous peoples, migrants, everyday life, and working conditions.
"When we studied his collection, it became clear that he aimed to present a balanced view of foreign countries, including changes in nature, the impact of mass tourism, migration, and even critical reflections on British colonialism."
How demanding was photography at that time from a technical perspective? He must have carried a lot of equipment with him.
“He focused on nature, mountains, forests, and rural landscapes, but also on what we might call social geography.”
That’s right. Daneš had to carry a tripod, a heavy camera, and a large box of glass plates with negatives.
"In tropical climates, with heat and humidity, photography became even more difficult. The photographic emulsion was very sensitive, and not every photograph turned out successfully."
How extensive is the photographic collection that Daneš left behind?
"For our book, we worked only with the collection preserved in the archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences. During his lifetime, however, Daneš donated photographs to several institutions, including the Náprstek Museum, the Museum of Ethnography, and Charles University.
“Altogether, his lifetime output may have reached nearly 10,000 photographs.”
"Altogether, his lifetime output may have reached nearly 10,000 photographs. The Academy of Sciences collection contains around 250 images, including glass plates and paper prints.
"Some photographs were published by Daneš himself, and he also collected and purchased images from studios in Australia, Japan, and elsewhere."
Part of the collection was damaged in the 2002 floods. How were the photographs rescued and restored?
"After the floods, the photographs were cleaned and dried, but full reconstruction of the collection began only 10 to 15 years later.
"We worked closely with conservators, who assessed the condition of the materials. Some glass plates were damaged by about 50 percent, some completely destroyed, while others had only lost captions and notes.
"We had to reconstruct information using Daneš’s articles, books, and handwritten lists, comparing them with the surviving photographs. It was a large and complex reconstruction, resulting in a mosaic-like but coherent view of the collection."
Where were the photographs stored when they were flooded?
"In 2002, the archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences was located near the Vltava River, and part of it was flooded. In the case of the Daneš collection, approximately 45 to 50 percent of the glass photographs were affected."
How long did the entire restoration and research process take?
"The first stage of our work took about five years. During that time, we conducted research, organized the collection, and published several articles.
"The following five years were devoted to writing the book, digitizing the materials, and interpreting the places Daneš visited with his wife during the long journey."
Your work resulted in a book called Around the World: The Flooded Photographic Diary of Jiří Viktor Daneš. How difficult was it to select the photographs for publication?
"We focused on places that were especially important to Daneš. For example, on his return journey he visited both islands of New Zealand, which he loved very much.
"He stayed there for about a month but took many photographs, and his travel writings show how deeply he admired the mountains, nature, Maori culture, and the Czech community there.
"So we decided to highlight some of the shorter stops and visits to make them more visible, although he spent most of the time in Australia. And I think it is appropriate to his outlook on foreign cultures and his comparative view of cultures and regions in the Pacific."
What happened to Jiří Viktor Daneš after he returned from Australia, and how did his story end?
"After returning to Prague in July 1927, Daneš had his glass negatives processed into diapositives, some of which were colorized by painters. He also prepared paper photographs for his travelogue and used images extensively in his university lectures.
"He worked as a professor, first in Bratislava and later again in Prague. He also donated thousands of everyday objects to museum collections and continued traveling to conferences and congresses.
"In 1927–1928, he travelled to the United States with his wife. Tragically, while photographing by the roadside, he was hit by a car and died there. It was a very difficult time for his wife, Božena Danešová, who returned to Prague with his body, papers, and photographs. After the Second World War, she donated many of these materials to the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences."
What happened to the everyday objects and gifts he left behind? Can they be seen today?
"Daneš was very generous and donated many items to institutions such as the Czech Ethnography Museum, part of the National Museum, thanks to his close relationships with Vojta Náprstek and others. Today, these objects can be seen in exhibitions at the Czech National Museum."
