A series of photographs depicting groups of people dressed in their regional folk costumes keep reappearing in many of the publications dealing with Ukrainian folk garb and folk art. Although these groups of people are set against the background of a village home (clay house with a thatched roof or a log house), orchard or field, they, nevertheless, have the look of being staged and posed for a special occasion or for a specific purpose.

This is the story behind these photographs.

Emperor Franz Joseph visited Halychyna in 1886. The following year, 1887, it was announced that Crown Prince Rudolf was to  visit Halychyna and Bukovyna, with stops in L’viv and Ternopil’ in order to better become acquainted with the country and its people. The Ternopil’ city district council organized a committee which was to plan a program and reception for  Crown Prince Rudolf. The committee consisted mostly of Polish aristocrats;  from among Ukrainians they invited only Volodyslav Fedorovych, a rich landowner, and Oleksander Barvins’kyi who was delegated from the Ukrainian Public Council of Ternopil. At the first meeting, at the suggestion of the Ukrainian members, five more Ukrainians were co-opted. The committee  decided to have an ethnographic exhibition in the pavilion in the city’s public garden. The exhibition was to show the lifestyle of the people – its folk dress, traditions, arts and crafts etc. As an additional illustration of the way of life of Ukrainian peasantry in Halychyna, four different homesteads were built in the park. They depicted homesteads from Podillia, Dnister River, Buh River, and Hutsul area styles. It was also decided to have, groups of peasants from 45 different districts, in their native dress. Also, a group of villagers (from the village of Ostriv and Berezovytsia Velyka) were to perform traditional harvest rituals, singing and dancing to the accompaniment of a folk orchestra. A cantata in honor of the Crown Prince was written by Professor N. Vakhnianyn  and sung by a choir of over 100 folk singers assembled from various villages. The organization of the choir and choral practice was in the hands of the Reverends Iosyf Vitoshynskyi and Amvrozii Krushelnytskyi (father of Solomiia Krushelnytska).

A photographer from Ternopil by the name of Sylkevych photographed all of the groups in costumes, hand-colored them and prepared two albums. One album of photographs in a  box  carved by Vasyl Shkribliak was given to the Crown Prince and the second album was purchased by “Prosvita” Society of Lviv.

This information  comes from a book by Oleksander Barvinskyi entitled “Spomyny z moho zhyttia” (Memoirs of My Life). Lviv: 1912 which I read quite a few years ago when I worked in the Slavonic Division of the New York Public Library. These memoirs have been reprinted recently in Ukraine.

Every time I went to Ukraine I kept asking my museum acquaintances whether they knew anything about these photographs and whether they were available or lost. Finally during one such inquiry, a librarian from the Ethnographic Museum  of Lviv said I think we might have some of them, and so they did. Here are a few reproductions. (L.W.)