The statue in the gardens of the United nations is the work of a Croatian sculptor Antun Augustinčić.

The 16 feet high bronze statue stands on a 26 feet high pedestal faced with blocks of rose marble from Croatia.

Sculptor Antun Augustinčić (1900-1979) studied art at the Zagreb College of Arts and Crafts. Additional studies he received under Ivan Meštrović. He studied also in Paris and exhibited there in 1926 followed by  exhibitions in London, Zagreb, Barcelona and in Split.

He developed a reputation as a master of monuments, especially
equestrian, winning public tenders for monuments at home and world wide.

Joseph Hitrec, recipient of Harter's literary prize, with private secretary of a maharadja in India, before going to hunt. Photo courtesey Dr. W. Hitrec.

Joseph Kralj  (Joseph King) from Mrkopalj, in Gorski Kotar, who left home in 1852 with his godafther, boarded a ship in Bremen and several weeks later arrived in New York. Unable to find work there, the two men traveled west in 1853 to Duluth, Minnesota.

That spring they met three other Croatians from Novi Vinodolski, one of whom suggested they all go to California to seek gold.

Kralj and his companions joined a covered wagon caravan which was attacked by Indians. Many of the party were killed in the attack, including two of the Croatians from Novi Vinodolski, who were skalped.

Only Kralj and one other Croatian made it to California.

In 1862 Kralj left for Sierra Nevadas to search for gold. Fully aware of the risks involved,  he deposited his journal, documents and money (about $2000) at the Austrian consulate in San Francisco. Kralj never returned to San Francisco, nor he did send any message. After three years of waiting the consul sent all his belongings to his family in Croatia.

His account of a Croatian adventurer vividly captures the experiences of only a few of the thousands of Croatians involved in the search of gold and riches in the rugged and wild American West in the nineteenth century.

Above Founder and Chairman of Corporation Ilija Letica, immigrated to US in 1957. He was born in Duvno.

Above One of thirteen Letica's plants throughout the United States located at Jean, thirty miles south of Las Vegas, Nevada. Beside it has licensees in Puerto Rico and throughout the world.

The company headquartered in Rocherster, Michigan, is manufacturing various plastic products, mostly pails used as household containers for painting, car washing purposes, as shipping containers by construction, food production and other major industries.

Louis Svećenski was born in 1862 in Osijek, Croatia. In 1885 he received contract from the Boston Symphony Orchestra as the first violinist, and thus came to America.

For thirty-three years he played the viola in the famous Kreisel Quartet. Later, he was director of New York's Institute of Musical Art and also one of founders of Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He died in 1926.