Balthasar Hacquet de la Motte was a French natural scientist and physician who spent many years of his life in Slovenia, then in Lvov, Krakow, and Vienna. From his original interests relating to natural science, he moved his attention to specific features of folk culture in the countries of Central, Southern and South-Eastern Europe, and especially to folk dress. He probably painted some illustrations in his publications by himself and these served as a model for other authors (Andreas Johann Herrlein), at some other time he used the service of a professional painter (Georg Vogel). As resulting from the comparison of his topographic works, he also made depictions from his older works available (Jacob Adam, Franz Seraph Christoph Reider), namely as a sketch for new aquarelles (Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geißler) that could later serve as a model for other authors (Vincenz Georg Kininger, Jean-Pierre Norblin). This is demonstrated by noticeable identical details on dress and its accessories. The sketched connections confirm the well-established way of taking-over and exploring older works as models, which survived as late as until the 19th century.
The large compendium titled Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild contains two volumes devoted to Bohemia (1894 and 1896) and one volume devoted to Moravia and Silesia (1897). Chapters on folk culture are accompanied by a plethora of pictures, a significant number of which depict rural residents wearing traditional dress. However, the informative value of illustrations depicting folk costumes from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia as a source for ethnological research is limited. The unbalanced selection of examples from individual regions is problematic. Understandably, a great emphasis was placed on the German ethnic group, but even ethnographic regions inhabited by Czech population are not represented proportionally to the preservation of traditional culture, so the resulting visual perception does not even correspond to the reality in the late nineteenth century. Czech painters were addressed to illustrate two volumes about Bohemia, but the Moravia and Silesia volume was illustrated almost exclusively by artists with ties to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied or taught, and to the imperial court. However, not only Viennese, but even all Czech painters had no direct experience with the folk culture in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. They worked according to supplied photographs, the availability of which eventually influenced the choice of illustrations. The successful level of both the drawing and painting templates and their xylographic treatments posed a positive aspect. And what is essential - the comparison with the traced model photographs confirms their basically faithful interpretation. Even so, the ethnologist cannot underestimate the critical insight into the documentary value of the illustrations accompanying the admirably monumental work Die österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild, named Kronprinzenwerk after its initiator and partly co-author, Crown Prince Rudolf.
Two brothers, František (1891-1956) and Alois (1897-1992) came from the family of a small farmer in the village of Senetářov in the Drahany Highlands. The older František was in the second year of his military service when the First World War broke out, the younger Alois was conscripted. Gradually they were both taken captive, and later got into the legions, with which they went along the whole Siberian railway. They met in Siberia as late as on Christmas Eve 1919. They were demobilized at the turn of the year 1920-1921. Several letters by František addressed to his chosen one and later wife have been preserved; the younger Alois wrote fresh memoirs immediately after his return describing not only war events, the situation in Russia where Soviets were assuming power, but also the relationships among legionnaires. These are unique sources offering authentic personal testimonies of WW1 participants.