Vojta Fingerhut-Naprstek, a distinguished Czech patriot (1826- 1894) took, as a student, part in revolutionary events of 1848. After defeat of the revolution, he had to flee to USA. Here, he had an opportunity to become familiar with technical progress in different fields of technology. He was most interested by craft tools and expedients for household and kitchen works. He came back to Prague ten years later. After visiting the World exhibition in London in 1862 and seeing the Kensington Museum, he began with his endeavour after establishing an industrial museum. As early as in 1862 and 1863, he made the public familiar, through exhibitions, with the news of American, English, German and domestic production of crafts expedients, tools and equipment for household. He solved the problem of permanent deposition of the collection by constructing a museum building that was opened in 1886. Today, this building serves as the Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures. The original technical museum was gradually changed to ethnographic museum already during the Náprstek's life because he, as a sponsor of Czech travellers, received and bought several objects from their expeditions. In 1944, the museum administration transferred the objects of technical nature to the National Technical Museum in Prague where they established a basis of the collection "Household appliances".
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