The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 5 (191), 1462—1469
UDK 39(=162.1)”19″(092):069.01(477.82)
- Received: 01.08.2026
- Accepted: 15.09.2026
- Published: ??.??.2026
MUSEUM WORK IN VOLYN UNDER THE TUTELAGE OF JAKUB HOFFMAN
YAREMCHUK Valentyna
- ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3445-3027
- Researcher, Thе Ethnology Institute
- of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
- Department of Modern Ethnology,
- 15, Svobody Avenue, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine,
- Contacts: e-mail: v_viktorivna@ukr.net
Abstract. The available knowledge about the activities of Jakub Hoffmann does not provide a clear answer to the question of his contribution to the development of museum work in Volhynia. The newly discovered facts require scientific understanding given that the scientist’s research followed the path of the national policy of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth regarding the so-called «eastern lands».
The object of the study is the culturological and ethnographic activity of Ya. Hoffman, and its subject is the scholar’s contribution to the development of museum work in Volhynia.
The purpose of the publication is to recreate the picture of J. Hoffmann’s participation in the organization of museum work in Volhynia, which is implemented by the following tasks: information is provided about the discussion on the museum issue in Volhynia between Jakub Hoffmann and Kazimierz Przemysł on the pages of contemporary publications; 2) the scientist’s involvement in the development of the scientific and theoretical foundations of museum activities is highlighted; 3) J. Hoffmann’s initiative in the establishment and development of the Volhynia Museum is outlined; 4) the functioning of the Museum of Economy in the city of Rivne, founded with the assistance of the scientist, is characterized.
The analysis of the processed, still little-known to the public mass of source materials shows that the care of museum affairs in the Rivne region carried out by Yakub Hoffmann was consistent with the national policy of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth regarding the border region, and at the same time represented the process of forming knowledge about the Volyn region and its development both in the cultural and economic space.
Keywords: Yakub Hoffmann, Volyn, interwar period, museum studies, Museum of the economy in the city of Rivne, Volyn Museum.
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