Finding aid for the Frank Joseph Bardoun Photographs

Biography of Frank Joseph Bardoun

Frank Joseph Bardoun (1905-1988) was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents, Louis and Mary E. (Plantner) Bardoun were immigrants from Czechoslovakia.

Bardoun's youth was spent in a mixed Czech-American environment. He attended public elementary and high schools and a Bohemian language school. His after-school activities showed a similar cultural division. He delivered both English and foreign language newspapers to earn money, and spent much of his free time in the Czech-American hall which stood on Quincy Avenue. He belonged to a choral group that met at the hall and to a labor gymnastic group, the Workingman's Gymnastic Union (Delnicke Telecvicne Jednoty - hereafter referred to as the DTJ). His association with the DTJ began in 1911 and continued throughout his life.

In 1924, Frank Bardoun graduated from Cleveland's East Technical High School. In mid-1924 he obtained a job at the Park Drop Forge Company on the city's east side. He remained at Park Drop Forge for 47 years, working as a technician, chemist, chief chemist metallurgist, and lab machine shop supervisor.

Throughout his working career, Bardoun continued and expanded his interest in Czech-American activities. His primary interest was with the DTJ. He held a variety of offices in the DTJ, and during the 1920s he was particularly active in organizing junior clubs for various units of the organization. He also helped establish the Junior Council to function as the DTJ's coordinating body for these clubs.

During this period of his activity with the DTJ, Bardoun began to contribute articles to the American Labor News (Americky Delnicky Listy), the newspaper of the DTJ. Many of his literary contributions were to the English language section of the paper where he wrote under the nom de plume "Don Au Bern." His writing career expanded to include editorial work on publications for the Park Drop Forge Company, submission of articles to various other Czech publications, and a manuscript history of the DTJ.

Bardoun's other major involvement with Czech-American fraternal life was with the Czechoslovak Society of America (CSA). He was the president of one of the largest local CSA lodges (Lodge Paramount), area trustee for the organization, national trustee, and a member of the National Executive Committee of the CSA.

During World War II, Bardoun was active in the Czech American National Alliance. During this period he also served on the board of the American Labor News. He also served on the boards of Komensky Hall and of the Novy Svet newspaper.

Of the many Czech organizations represented in the Frank Bardoun Papers, three are the most prominent. These are the DTJ, the Czechoslovak Society of America, and the Union of Czech Women and Men.

The DTJ was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1909 by a group of Czech socialists. The organization was patterned after workingmen's Sokol units in in Bohemia. The first Cleveland DTJ unit was the Ferdinand Lassalle unit which met at the Quincy Avenue Czech hall. Other units were soon established in Chicago and other Cleveland Czech enclaves. The Cleveland units included The Mt. Pleasant Unit (1911) and the Fredrich Engel Unit (1912). Several other units, including the Karl Marx Unit, Buckeye Unit, and the Maple Heights Unit were established during this early period but soon disbanded or merged with other groups.

The initial purpose of the DTJ was to build worker solidarity through gymnastic activities. Like the non-socialist Sokols, the DTJ also strove to foster the growth of Czech nationalism. Eventually, the gymnastic activities of the DTJ were augmented by other social and cultural activities such as singing and dramatics. A DTJ singing and dramatic group, Vojan, was founded in 1924.

As a socialist organization, the DTJ lent its support to local and national socialist candidates such as Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, and tried to implement various programs, such as a cooperative food store founded in 1912.

During the 1920s the DTJ was confronted with the problem of attracting second generation Czech-Americans to its ranks. To solve this problem, several English-speaking units were created. These included the Mt. Pleasant DTJ Pleasure Club (1924), the West Side DTJ Club (1926), and the DTJ Lassalle J. Club (1926). It was during the latter part of the 1920s that Frank Bardoun began to organize a number of junior clubs within established DTJ units in order to attract younger people to the organization.

The major development of this concern for new membership was the establishment of a summer camp, "Taborville," near Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in 1925. The camp was the idea of Joseph Martinek, a prominent Cleveland Czech socialist editor, and one of the first members of the DTJ. Eventually, a number of summer cottages, a hall, an artificial lake, and other recreational facilities were established at Taborville and it became the center of many of the DTJ's activities.

During the Great Depression, the DTJ and its members supported a number of reform measures. They were particularly active in the move for unemployment insurance and old age pensions in the state of Ohio. A number of the members lobbied for this measure at the Ohio State House.

The DTJ's socialist-labor orientation was most evident during the 1930s in its sponsorship of the First Worker's Olympiad of America in 1936. This event, similar to a sokol slet, was held at Taborville and attracted athletes from all over the world.

During World War II, the organization was most active and concerned with the liberation of Czechoslovakia. The post-war communist takeover of the Czech nation caused some divisiveness in the DTJ. Some members favored the takeover and were subsequently expelled from the DTJ, which at this time was made up of moderate socialists. The socialist nature of the DTJ further moderated during the McCarthy period, and by the 1970s it was hardly evident.

By the 1970s, the DTJ had become basically a cultural organization. Several of its units in Cleveland were still active although none were centered in their original neighborhoods. All non-Cleveland units were defunct by the 1970s. The former summer camp at Taborville became the center of DTJ activity, and a number of DTJ members moved to Chagrin Falls in order to enjoy the events carried out there by the DTJ and other Cleveland Czech organizations.

The Czechoslovak Society of America (CSA) is a national fraternal insurance organization. It was founded in 1854 as the Czecho-Slavonic Benevolent Society (Cesko-Slovansky Podporujici Spolek) in St. Louis, Missouri. In the ensuring years, lodges of the organization were established in various cities throughout the United States. The first Cleveland, Ohio lodge, Svornost (Harmony) was founded in 1870.

In addition to furnishing insurance benefits for its members, the CSA has always been active in fostering Czech culture, encouraging, for example, the teaching of the Czech language and the retention of Czech customs.

By offering a wide variety of benefits, the CSA has maintained a large membership. The organization was headquartered in Berwyn, Illinois in the 1970s and maintained seventeen lodges in the greater Cleveland area.

The Union of Czech Women (Jednota Ceskych Dam or JCD) is a fraternal insurance organization originally directed toward women. The JCD was founded in Cleveland, Ohio in 1870 to meet the insurance and social needs of Czech women who were usually excluded from membership in other male-dominated fraternal organizations. Although initially centered in Cleveland, the JCD developed lodges throughout the United States. By 1918, the organization had 144 lodges and 23,000 members nationwide. Twenty-one lodges were located in Cleveland alone.

By the 1970s, the organization was known as the Unity of Czech Ladies and Men. Like the formerly male-only fraternal organizations, it opened its membership to both sexes. The organization was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois in the 1970s and maintained seven Cleveland area branches.

Scope and Content

The Frank Joseph Bardoun Photographs, ca. 1925-1960s, consist of group portraits and views of LaSalle Club activities, primarily at Taborville, Ohio, and of the Worker's Gymnastic Union. Included are Taborville scenes, Vojan Singing Society photographs, athletic clubs, and photographs of the interior of Park Drop Forge in Cleveland, Ohio.

The collection includes 40 albums of varying sizes that contain black and white photographs. It also includes approximately 350 loose black and and white photographs of varying sizes.

This collection will be useful to researchers studying the Czech immigrant community in Cleveland and northeast Ohio, particularly the sokol movement and socialist Czechs in the late nineteenth century the twentieth century. Those studying Czech social, cultural, fraternal, and political organizations in Cleveland, particularly the Worker's Gymnastic Union will find this collection useful.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The researcher should also consult MS 3634 Frank Joseph Bardoun Papers.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] PG 137 Frank Joseph Bardoun Photographs, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

These photographs were removed from MS 3634 Frank Joseph Bardoun Papers. Gifts of Frank Joseph Bardoun in 1973-1976.

Detailed Description of The Collection