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The books presented in this catalogue are from the collective ownership of structural engineer and architect, Jaroslav Joseph Polívka (1886–1960) and his son, civil engineer and U.C. Berkeley Professor Milos Polívka (1917–1987). Many of the items in this collection bear the ex libris stamp of Jan Polívka, Jaroslav’s eldest son, although they were not intended for his library. The history of this family and the realization of this collection is fascinating.
The main collector of these works on civil engineering and architecture was Jaroslav. He is best known for his essential structural collaborations with Frank Lloyd Wright on the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin.
Jaroslav was already an established architect and engineer in Czechoslovakia before he emigrated to the United States.
Jaroslav’s youngest son, Milos Polivka (1917–1987), was his first child to leave Czechoslovakia. He immigrated to the United States in 1938 to assist his father in overseeing the construction and opening of the Czech Pavilion at the World’s Fair. After working on the East Coast for a few years he came to Berkeley in 1941, reuniting with his parents. He enrolled in the Civil Engineering Department at UC Berkeley, where he received a B.S. degree in 1944 and an M.S. Degree in 1948. He was then hired as a faculty member and went on to teach at the University for 33 years, during which time he served as the Chairman of the Division of Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics for four years and Assistant Dean of the College of Engineering for an additional year. He made significant contributions to the science and technology of concrete and was the author or co-author of more than 70 publications on the properties of concrete. He is also recognized for his research findings in the areas of thermal stresses and creep in mass concrete, behavior of expansive cement concrete, and properties of concrete behavior for nuclear reactors. Milos’ ex libris stamp appears on a few of the books in this collection.
Jaroslav’s eldest son, Jan Polívka (1916–2001), immigrated to the United States in 1939. During World War II, between May 1944 and September 1945, he served in northern Europe as an intelligence officer during the Battle of the Bulge. During this time, he bought many books for his father and mailed them back to him. Jan’s ex libris stamp appears on many of the books in this collection as he would stamp them before gifting them to Jaroslav. After the war, Jan entered Columbia University and received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering in just 2 ½ years, graduating in 1948. After graduation, he then came west to Berkeley to reunite with his family. While in the Bay Area, he worked as an engineer for both the East Bay Municipal Utility District and Kaiser Engineers. Then, in 1952, he moved back to New York in order to be close to his wife’s family, where he worked for 10 years in responsible positions with several engineering companies before retiring after 25 years as a Senior Engineer with the NYC Transit Authority.
There are archives of Jaroslav’s work at the State University of New York (SUNY), The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, The National Technical Library in Prague, and at the Center for Studies and Experimentation in Public Works (CEDEX) in Madrid.
