What does electronic environment mean for scientists researching the history of science and technology? What sources can one use at present and what sources will be available in the future?

The Central European environment is still looking for a solution to this pressing problem. Against the background of correspondence of three outstanding Bohemian scientists of the last 150 years, this contribution offers some thoughts regarding changes in the way scientific correspondence is carried out and subsequently also in the ways it can be used in historical research.

As examples, this article uses Jan Evangelista Purkyně (1787–1869), professor of physiology in Wroclaw and Prague and one of the first advocates of Darwin’s theory in the Bohemian lands, Otto Wichterle (1913–1998), professor of technology of plastic materials at the Czech Technical University in Prague and inventor of contact lenses, and Antonín Holý (1936–2012), professor and discoverer of a number of antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, and herpes.

Based on their extant correspondence, that is, based mainly on a pictorial presentation, this contribution reflects on the changes that occurred between the nineteenth century and the present and on their impact on the creation of sources that can be used in researching the history of science.