The Library collection has in its holdings three albums of original photographs depicting the  Carpathian Mountains and its inhabitants- the Hutsuls. The photographs were taken by Henryk Gasiorowski  (1878-1947) in the 1920-30s. He was a Major in the Polish Army, a geographer and an author of one of the best tourist guide books to the Carpathian mountains and its environs, which was published in L’viv in 1933. He considered the Hutsul region to be on of the most beautiful corners of the Carpathians and the Hutsuls to be the most fascinating ethnographic group of people not only in the Halychyna area but in the whole of Europe.

The albums are divided into three major subjects:

Album 1 – View of the mountains and its nature.
Album 2 – Religious culture (churches, chapels, roadside monument, etc.)
Album 3 – Material culture (vernacular architecture, tools, implements, folk art, folk costumes, etc.

9 photographs from the album are displayed to your right.

 

Items of the month from the museum collections:

Wooden Saddle. 19th century. Hutsul region.

Decorated with carved design.
Before saddling the horse, the Hutsuls place a thick fulled wool cloth under the saddle and a soft wool textile (lizhnyk) over the saddle for the rider's comfort.

 

 

Wooden Dowry Chest. 19th century. Hutsul region.

Decorated with carved designs, mostly sun motifs. Every young maiden had to have a dowry chest which usually was given to her by her God-father. From early age the young girl filled the chest with embroidered shirts, bolts of linen cloth she herself wove, various woven textiles, items of adornment like coral necklaces, metal crosses, necklaces out of silver coins, etc. At the time of her marriage the dowry chest should have been filled to the brim and went with her to her husband's home.

 

Items of the month from the archival collection:

Manuscript. Bohdan Lepky's short story "Za Drotamy" (Behind Barbed Wire), and two poems "V Svit Pishly My..." (Into the World We Went) and "Ne Kydai Pluha Sered Nyvy" (Do Not Leave the Plough in the Middle of the Field), hand written and sent to the editors of Svoboda, the Ukrainian Daily in the United States in 1920. The poet at that time lived in Berlin.