 In 1910, Antanas Olšauskas, a Lithuanian emigrant in Chicago, Illinois, started to assemble an editorial team, but financial constraints and disagreements among the editors resulted in the abandonment of the project in 1912.After the declaration of independence of Lithuania in 1918, two initiatives were born in 1924.One, by the publishing house Švyturys, sought to publish a general encyclopedia; the other, by the publishing house Kultūra, in Šiauliai, sought to publish an encyclopedia dedicated to Lithuania and Lithuania-related topics.