Jindra Vlček, 1885-1968, was a Czech artist and World War I veteran. He was born in 1885 in Malá Skalice in what is now the Czech Republic. He graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He spent two years, from 1906-1908, in the United States designing movie posters and working in advertising. Upon his return to Europe, he was imprisoned for evading military service. Czechs were at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and thus in 1914 he was sent to the Russian front in World War I to fight for Austria-Hungary. In October 1915 he was captured and joined the Czech Legion, a unit of Czech prisoners of war fighting for Russia as part of a bargain in which Russia promised Czech independence if they were victorious against the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Czech Legion became highly popular in the U.S. press, which in part helped to ensure that the Czechs achieved independence once World War I ended. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Vlček focused on his art, producing four designs for postage stamps commemorating battles in which the Czech Legion was involved, of which some originals are preserved in this collection. His other work includes paintings and charcoal sketches of landscapes, military scenes, and portraiture.