The Ukrainian Folklore Archives were founded in 1977 when Bohdan Medwidsky assembled students' fieldwork projects from his first course on Ukrainian folklore. Dr. Medwidsky's vision is the development of a rich, vibrant and lasting resource for the study of diverse Ukrainian traditions.
Dr. Medwidsky was born in Ukraine and spent his youth in Switzerland and Toronto. He joined the University of Alberta faculty in 1971, where he has been the driving force in developing the Ukrainian Folklore Centre, degree programs in the field, and many community-based projects promoting Ukrainian culture. The Archives were renamed in his honour in 2003.
In 1994, room 524 of the Old Arts Building's fifth floor attic was officially opened as the new home of the Ukrainian Folklore Archives. Located at the top of the building, the uniquely restored room boasts a vaulted ceiling and large window. Supported by an endowment of the same name, the Archives house a unique collection of fieldwork notes and ethnographic materials as well as a small reference library.
The archive library consists of nearly 7,500 book, journals, magazines in both English and Ukrainian related to various aspects of Ukrainian culture. Among them you will find ethnographic studies, books on material culture, folk arts and crafts, publications related to Ukrainian history, geography, Christianity, mythology, large collection of verbal lore, and much more. Many of these books are unique publications that are not found in the University of Alberta library.
The collection also includes contemporary recordings from Ukraine, local Canadian instrumental music, artifacts, photographic materials, fieldwork interview collection, collection of video recordings, student research papers.
The online content of the Bohdan Medwidsky Ukrainian Folklore Archives includes the following collections:
This collection dedicated to the complex tradition of Ukrainian wedding ritual and its development in Canada. It contains an ethnographic overview of wedding traditions in Ukraine, video-recorded fragments, teaching resources and glossary of terms.
The database provides access to the inventory of Ukrainian music and songs preserved in the Archives. The actual recordings - vinil disks, audio and video cassettes, compact discs, digital files - could be accessed in the Archives.
Natalie Kononenko's fieldwork interviews from Ukraine are now available online. The recordings contain folk narratives, songs, discussions of folk beliefs, rituals and much more. The sound files and searchable by category (ex. domovyk).
- Ukrainian Folklore Archives Photo Collection (being upgraded)
Thousand of photographs collected as part of ethnographic fieldwork by the Kule Centre's researchers and students during the last two decades. The collection covers various aspects of culture including ritual, material culture, everyday life both in Ukraine and Canada. The collection is searchable by keywords, objects, subject, and date.
- Local Cuture and Diversity on the Prairies (coming soon)
The collection is a sample of field interiviews collected for the Local Culture Project. The interviews focus on the period prior to 1939 in the Canadian praries and explore a variety of of local traditions and everyday life of the communities.
- Ukrainian Edmonton Project (coming soon)
The project aims at creating a collection of oral history interviews, historical photographs and documents that reflect the history and culture of Edmonton's Ukrainian community ( 1930s - 1950s). Samples of interviews and historical photos are available online.