Viktor Kristan

Viktor Kristan (Šentvid pri Stični 1876–Ljubljana 1947) was an intendant navy commissar in the Austro-Hungarian navy from 1907 to 1909, sailing to East Asia on the torpedo boat Leopard. The ship sailed between numerous Chinese and Japanese ports for a good fifteen months and also visited Korea. Viktor, who wanted to get to know foreign countries in as much depth as possible, visited Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul as well as several landmarks in the interior of the various countries, in addition to coastal towns and places along the Yangtze River. During his travels, he recorded his experiences and impressions in a diary. 

Viktor brought back several items from East Asia, and in the places he visited he regularly bought postcards, which he pasted into an album entitled S. M. S. “Leopard” 15, IX. 1907 – 18. IV. 1909. He affixed stamps to many of the postcards and had them stamped at the place of purchase. In addition to the postcard album, his estate also included an album of photographs from his travels, in which he stored not only photographs but also business cards of foreign acquaintances, invitations and event programmes, and other documents that bore witness to his life in East Asia. As Viktor Kristan had no children, the albums and several other objects from his estate were inherited by his nephew. Several of those items were purchased from the nephew’s sons by the Piran Maritime Museum.