The cartographer and historian Jindřich Metelka graduated with a degree in geography and history from Charles University and from 1883, when he was awarded his doctorate, he travelled around Europe, Africa and Asia, creating and organising geographical atlases. He lectured at the university and engaged in educational activities. He was one of the founding members of the Czech Cartographic Society and also published the journal of the Czech Geographical Society. In addition to his academic work he published educational literature and collaborated with the traveller Emil Holub, whom he helped prepare his travelogues for publication. He took a keen interest in school education and the quality of lessons at lower schools, and worked as a provincial school inspector and was the chairman of the Central School Foundation. As a historian he was interested in the Czech national minorities, particularly in the North Bohemian border region, and defended the interests of the Czech minority in political circles as a member of the Reich Parliament of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. During World War I he was active in the anti-Austrian resistance and after the establishment of the First Republic he advocated support for Czech education and the foundation of Czech schools. He succeeded in pushing through an important minority school law that supported Czech schools in majority German areas of the Sudetenland.
