Preserving local history amid war: Mykolaiv to digitize over 1,000 old postcards and photos from museums
Over 1,000 old postcards and photographs from museum collections will be digitized in Ukraine's southern city of Mykolaiv to create a "collective portrait of the city of those times."
These are unique street photos of the old city, photo cards from the family archives of well-known families, and documented stories of various historical events in the region's life, Rubryka reports.
What's the problem?
Lilia Redka, the main custodian of the funds of the Mykolaiv Regional Local Lore Museum, says that only a tenth of all items are represented in the museum's permanent exhibition.
"This is very little. Many exhibits are stored in funds that are closed to the public. Only museum employees responsible for their storage see them, so museum visitors are unlikely to be able to see the entire collection. Moreover, people may not even realize what artifacts are stored in the museum. And this is a public asset that is important for society as a whole," says the museum curator.
According to her, over time, photographs and other paper documents from the exhibits need to be replaced with facsimile copies to protect them from the effects of sunlight and other external factors. Digitizing these items allows the creation of precise copies of exhibits that will be used in further work.
"Moreover, they can be used as a source for scientific papers and exhibition activities. The fact that some of these photos will appear on the Internet is a plus because Mykolaiv residents and other residents of Ukraine will be able to view them and will have an idea of what items we have in storage," Lilia Redka adds.
What's the solution?
Mykolaiv will digitize over 1,000 old postcards and photographs from the late 19th to the early 20th century from the Mykolaiv Regional Local Lore Museum.
The MY ART Platform is implementing the project to digitize paper exhibits in partnership with the Development Agency of Mykolaiv with financial support from the Stabilization Fund for Culture and Education of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine.
How does it work?
"Conventionally, all photos can be divided into family, architectural, and event categories. They illustrate not only the life of the old city and portraits of the residents of that time but also demonstrate the evolution of photography as an art, from luxurious photo studios to street reporting," says Yevhen Homyonuk, a cultural development expert from Mykolaiv's Office of Recovery and Development. "It's also a great source for local history and ethnographic research and an illustration of contemporary fashion with different costumes, hairstyles, and accessories. It's a collective portrait of Mykolaiv of those times."
Mykolaiv Regional Local Lore Museum employees note that the museum collection includes over 390,000 storage items, and this is only a fraction of the main fund. The group for storing printed and manuscript paper documents and photographs consists of tens of thousands of items. And all of them need to be digitized.
Many of the old postcards and photographs have already been digitized. They will all be posted on a specially created bilingual website. This allows researchers and history enthusiasts to access these artifacts 24/7 from anywhere in the world. It's also an additional source of knowledge for English-speaking audiences about Mykolaiv's historical and cultural heritage and Ukraine as a whole.
In related news, Mykolaiv digitized another 100 marine works from the collections of two museums.
Also, Rubryka reported that the evacuated manuscripts of prominent Ukrainian writers Les Kurbas, Mykola Khvylovy, and Ivan Dniprovsky are being digitized in the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Tustan."
The Roman Shukhevych Museum, located in Lviv and destroyed by Russian drones, has been digitized.
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