Збірка клепсидр Бібліотеки Наукового товариства імені Шевченка у Львові

Abstract

The paper considers the obituaries collection of the Shevchenko Scientific Society Library in Lviv, which belongs to the “Obituaries collection of the 19th–20th centuries” (archive № 351 of the Manuscript Department of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv). These obituaries (pos­ters, announcements) notify about death and present biographical data of famous Ukrainian figures of public, political and cultural life, scholars (prima­rily, the Society’s members), most of whom died during the interwar period (1918–1939). The paper traces the history of the collection’s formation, in particular based on the collective materials, which arrived to the Society’s Library from various Lviv institutions, foremost from Stauropigion Institute, and highlights its further fate up until it was received into the archives of the Manuscript Department of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv; the content and types of the documents are outlined. The collection represent various spheres of the Society’s work, the history of its archives formation. The history of the Library’s obituaries collection is complex and long- lasting – covers more than half a century, approximately from 1892, when the Shevchenko Scientific Society was reformed into scientific and its Library was established, until the Society’s disbandment in 1940. The collection’s creation is related to the work of previous archival and scientific institutions, printing houses of Lviv and Halychyna. This had resulted into the creation of the “Obi­tuaries collection of the 19th–20th centuries”. The Library’s obituaries collection forms its first chapter. Obviously, mostly they include the obituaries of the Society’s members, made by its printing house, which, in particular, indicates the organization of commemorative events by the Society. The obituaries, printed by other Lviv institutions and received by the Library, replenished the archive and significantly expanded its chronology and themes. These documents appeared in private archives and museums, various departments of a few libraries, whereafter they found themselves in the Manuscript Department of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv, where they are kept until now.