(1788-1873)
Anna Náprstková, businesswoman, philanthropist and patron. She experienced a period of poverty, was widowed twice, and still did not lose her vigour and zest for life. She became a successful entrepreneur, running a family brewery and distillery. She supported Czech patriots, especially her son Vojta Náprstek, a Czech patriot, patron and supporter of progress and women empowerment, who brought the first sewing machine from America. He was also involved in the founding of the American Ladies’ Club that became the centre of the contemporary women’s emancipation movement, or the Czech Industrial Museum, operating in their family home. This bourgeois house on an old Prague square still hosts the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, a subsidiary of the National Museum.