The Svoboda Diaries Project

About the Project

The Svoboda Diaries Project began in 2006 as a project under the umbrella of the Ottoman Texts Archive Project (OTAP), which was started in 1993 at the University of Washington. Throughout the project’s history, we have focused on the digitization of the journals of two members of the Svoboda family, Joseph Svoboda and his son Alexander.

The Joseph Mathia Svoboda diaries capture over 40 years of trade on the Tigris, life, politics, and the landscape of Ottoman Iraq through the perspective of a British steamship purser with a rich family history and local connections. To read more about the diaries, click here.