Front

Back

Front: Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic (1787-1864), Serb linguist

Karadzic was born in Serbia. He was self-educated. Karadzic reformed the Serb literary language and standardized the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet by following strict phonemic principles.

Back: Karadzic in later years

Front

Back

Front: Petar II Petrovic Njegos (1813-1851), Serb poet, ruler of Montenegro and bishop of the Serb Orthodox Church

He became the bishop and sovereign ruler of Montenegro at the age of 17. Between 1836-1838 he published The ABC of the Serbian language, The Serbian Grammar, and re-printed The Serbian elementary reading book originally printed by his father Petar I. In 1842, he was elected an "Honorable Member" of the Serbian Literature Society as a reward for his merits in literature and education of the Serb people.

Back: Statue from Njegos Mausoleum

Front

Back

Front: Stevan Stojanovic Mokranjac (1856-1914), Serbian composer and music educator

He was born in the village of Mokranje, from which he got his last name Mokranjac, literally means resident of Mokranje. He was educated in natural science and mathematics. Later he studied music in Münich and Rome. In 1884 he returned to Serbia briefly to become conductor of the Kornelije Stankovic choir of Belgrade.

In 1885 Mokranjac went back to Germany to study music. He became the conductor for the Belgrade Choir in 1887 and taught music at the Belgrade gymnasium 1887-1900.
In 1901 he transferred to Bogoslovija (Belgrade Divinity College) where he taught church singing. In 1899 Mokranjac found the Serbian Music School, the first independent music school in Belgrade. He remained the director of this school until his death.

Back: Photo of Mokranjac

Front

Back

Front: Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), Serbian-American inventor and researcher

Tesla was born in Croatia of Serbian origin. He attended the Technical University at Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague, majoring in engineering. It was in Graz he discovered the rotating magnetic field, the basis of most alternating-current machinery.

He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and sold the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors to George Westinghouse the following year. In 1891 he invented the Tesla coil, an induction coil widely used in radio technology.

Back: Photo of Tesla