Among the admirers of Božena Němcová belonged also the Prague brewer Ferdinand Fingerhut. In the correspondence of Božena Němcová he was almost always alluded to in connection with eating, drinking or theatre. As reveals his diary from the years , food, drinks and theater played very important role in his life. The preserved diary is, first and foremost, a cookery book that reveals the everyday life of the bourgeois household and its dietary regimen in the second half of the nineteenth century. Besides, for Ferdinand Fingerhut and his daughter Božena were very important the home musical-declamation entertainments that they organized in their household. Music and recitations were performed in presence of such personalities as Antonín Dvořák, Karel Bendl, Helena Röslerová or Otýlie Sklenářová Malá. The diary thus also renders possible the study of the cultural activities of this important patron of the Czech theatre.
The preserved correspondence of Božena Němcová can be used as a source for an analysis of her attitude to her children. The letters enable us to reflect if these attitudes diverged from the conventions of the time, to what degree her personal experiences reflected in her raising of the children and what priorities she envisioned for them. The principles Němcová quoted can be to a certain degree seen as representing a clash of only slowly changing social norms (i.e. the notion of the patriarchal family with father-provider) and the rapidly changing social and economic reality. Němcová herself was forced to submit to the economic situation of her family and through her own income tried to improve its situation. As for the raising of the children, she mostly advocated traditional views. However, we can consider modern her conviction of the importance of first-rate education, without regard to gender. As for the future professions of her children, she viewed this question in a practical way, considering the possibilities for professional fulfilment and salary. There is a marked difference in the approach of Němcová to her sons and to her only daughter, influenced of course by the fact of their greater or shorter distance from home, but also probably by certain traditional and gender-stereotypical thinking. The educational style of Němcová should not be considered liberal, as she most often reminded her children of their duties, moral principles, obedience, respect and responsibility.
The paper deals with the activities of the writer Božena Němcová in Slovakia in the years 1851-1855. She visited Slovakia four times in this period (three times she visited her husband who worked here in civil service, her last stay was intended as a cure, while most of the time Němcová devoted to ethnographic research). All her stays resulted in contributions based on active observation, ethnographic and folkloristic research, consultations with a number of Slovak intellectuals dealing with both humanities and natural sciences. The results of the individual stays differ both in form and quality. They proceed from journalistic „causerie“ towards serious attempts of monographic elaboration of natural background, history, demography, sociological, ethnographical and gen-der facts of a given region. The contribution to folkloristic is outstanding. The writer used Slovak inspirations also in her fiction. Thanks to her activities, Bože-na Němcová belongs to the history of Slovak ethnology.