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The Ethnology Notebooks. 2026. № 5 (191), 1423—1431

UDK 069.5:39:745.52

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

  • Received: 23.09.2026
  • Accepted: 25.09.2026
  • Published: ??.??.2026

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MUSEUM DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM AT THE SHEVCHENKO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY MUSEUM, 1907—1917: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES FOR THE VERIFICATION OF THE PYSANKA COLLECTION

HERII Oksana

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8383-227X
  • Candidate of Art Studies, Senior Researcher,
  • Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • Department of Art Studies,
  • 15 Svobody Avenue, 79000 Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: oheriy@ukr.net

TESLIUK Valentyna

  • ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4943-1175
  • Head of the Collections Sector, Lead Curator of the “Pysanka” Collection,
  • Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Crafts;
  • Institute of Ethnology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,
  • 15 Svobody Avenue, 79000 Lviv, Ukraine,
  • Contacts: e-mail: valentyna_teslyuk@ukr.net

Abstract. The Museum of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) in Lviv was one of the important centres for the collection, preservation, and scholarly study of Ukrainian cultural heritage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its collections were formed in the context of the active development of the Ukrainian national movement and the gradual institutionalisation of museum practice.

The development of collection documentation at the NTSh Museum is directly relevant to the contemporary study and verification of ethnographic objects originating from its collections and now preserved in the holdings of the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. In particular, the collection of pysanky has preserved a considerable number of traces of the NTSh Museum’s documentation system.

The aim of this article is to examine the development of the documentation system at the NTSh Museum in 1907—1917 and to determine its significance for the contemporary verification of objects in the ethnographic collection.

The article traces the history of efforts to establish principles for the inventorying of museum objects at the NTSh Museum and highlights the positive role played by the adoption of advanced practices of museum documentation from the Vienna Museum of Ethnology. It also examines the significant contribution of Oleksa Nazariiv, a curator and organiser of the NTSh collections.

Keywords: Shevchenko Scientific Society Museum; museum documentation; ethnographic collections; pysanky; provenance; attribution, Oleksa Nazariiv.

REFERENCES

  • Kushnir, V. (2021). Museum of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (1892—1940). Lviv [in Ukrainian].
  • Sapelyak, O. (1996). About the museum case of Shevchenko Scientific Society. The Ethnology Notebooks, 4, 225—229 [in Ukrainian].
  • Hontar, T. (1992). Ethnographic collections of the Museum of Shevchenko Scientific Society. Notes of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Works of the Section of Ethnography and Folklore (Vol. ССХХІІІ, pp. 417—427). Lviv [in Ukrainian].
  • Horban, І., Chwalba, A., & Zamorski, K. (Eds.). (2020). Organizing the Past: The Policy of the Soviet Authorities Towards the Museums in Lviv, 1939—1941. Іn: A. Chwalba, K. Zamorski. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth History, Memory, Legacy (Рр. 341—350). New York; London: Routledge.
  • Chronicle of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv. (1907—1920) (Vol. 31—64). Lviv [in Ukrainian].
  • Banakh, V. (2017). NTSH Museum in Lviv (1912—1939): Scientific-Fund Work. Historical and Cultural Studies, 4 (1), 21—26 [in Ukrainian].
  • Chorna, S. (2020, April 24). The National Museum of the History of Ukraine hosts online exhibitions. Holos Ukrainy. Retrieved from: https://www.golos.com.ua/article/330293 [in Ukrainian].
  • Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv. Fond 1235. Opys 1. Sprava 778. Аrkush 2—3. Retrieved from: https://hrushevsky.history.org.ua/item/0004519 [in Ukrainian].
  • Schmidt, L. (1960). The Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art. Origins and Character of a Viennese Museum. Wien: Bergland [in German].
  • Vynar, L. (Ed). (2006). Correspondence of Mykhailo Hrushevsky (Vol. 3). Kyiv; New York; Paris; Lviv; Toronto [in Ukrainian].
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