COMMUNITY IN IMAGES: ARCHIVAL SOURCES ON THE BIOGRAPHY OF KHVEDIR VOVK

Abstract

The paper discusses visual materials from the fond of the Ukrainian archaeologist, anthropologist and ethnologist Khvedir Vovk concerning the most understudied period of his biography in Swiss (1876—1878, 1883—1887) and French (1887—1905) emigration. As part of an ongoing digitization project, numerous dolmen illustrations from this period have been found in his papers. We consider these documentations of excursions with regard to their social component. Therefore, we are illuminating Vovk’s role in Mykhailo Drahomanov’s circles in Geneva, and his participation in French archaeologist circles around Gabriel and Adrien de Mortillet.

At the heart of the consideration is a sketch drawn by Vovk from an excursion, which we use to show how many complex memories are contained in it. The drawing shows a moment in August 1883, which later was followed by dramatic events. The depicted Vovk, Drahomanov, Malyovany, Chyzhevsky, Zhebunev (and probably Zhebunev’s daughter Maruska) gathered in Geneva for a political purpose: to draft a project for the political association called the «Free Union». Its aim was to promote the principles of liberal political reform and decentralization in the Russian Empire. As Drahomanov recalled in his memoirs, the goal was to campaign for political freedom and to inform Ukrainian and Russian public about the social issues in Western Europe and America.

As we argue, such images are at an intersection between scientific documentation and private memorabilia. They provide information about the complex ties of a scientist that show little in his published works but influenced his private, social and academic life. Through his extensive collections of such materials, Vovk’s papers are of the greatest interest to a modern Ukrainian history of science that addresses both the private dimensions of biography and the European interconnections of Ukrainian scientists.