Contest Summary | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Joseph and Friends: A Svoboda Scavenger Hunt

The Svoboda Diaries Project conducted an online contest from April 19, 2021 to May 14, 2021. Over the course of these four weeks, contest participants had an opportunity to learn about a unique region and time period through the diaries of Joseph Mathia Svoboda, who traveled up and down the Tigris River in his job as a steamship purser. These diaries offer a rich account of economic life, local politics, and environmental change over 40 years of Iraqi history. 

During each week of the contest, a new theme and set of questions were posted on our website. By reading the diaries and answering questions, participants learned new information that may have been relevant to course material, their general interests, as well as fun facts!

As participants answered the weekly contest questions, our amazing SDP interns also created visualizations, summaries, and selected a few top answers using your responses. This content, along with the corresponding theme pages can be found below.

Contest Winners

Congratulations to the winners of a $25 gift card! Thank you to everyone that participated. We hope that you were able to learn more about this period’s history through your participation! Please continue to check out our website for more interesting information about Joseph Matthias Svoboda and Ottoman Iraq.

1. Addie Perkins
2. Kathleen Muenzen
3. Rich Green
4. Sam Fields