F. Vovk’s Library and the Library of the Museum (Cabinet) of Anthropology and Ethnology Named after F. Vovk

Abstract

The research is dedicated to F. Vovk’s book collection and the Library of the Museum (Cabinet) of Anthropology and Ethnology Named after F. Vovk. The list of problems that help to implement the research objective consists of bibliographic description of rare books from the “Rare books collection with F. Vovk’s name on bookplates, inscriptions, and marginalia” in the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History (the object of the study), and its three (sub)collections (subjects of the study); characteristics of the content, chronology, language, and topics of publications with focus on certain copies depending on the role of their content or authors in Ukrainian studies. The author substantiates that the studied collection (171 units) constitutes one of the largest rare books collections in the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History and contains fragments of libraries of many prominent scholars. The research provides reasons for the receipt of the fragment of the library of the former Museum (Cabinet) to the National Museum of Ukrainian History in 1936; its future; final discovery by the museum experts in the 2010s and introduction into scientific circulation, as well as into museum communication. Reasonable assumptions about the non-scholarly division of the library of the former Museum (Cabinet) are made, relying on the comparison of the Library Fund of the National Museum of Ukrainian History and the book collection of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The object of this research is analyzed as the source for ethnology, ethnography, local, and Ukrainian studies. The information from bookplates, inscriptions, and marginalia forms the base for the outlines of the biographies of the authors of publications. Representativeness of the studied ­(sub)collections is determined in comparison with their original content according to the archival sources. Research prospects are set in the context of the mission of bibliographers, historians, and experts in Ukrainian Studies to develop “Professor F. Vovk’s Memory Department”, initiated in the 1920s by his associates and brutally interrupted by the Great Terror.