A new collection of archival photographs of the city has been published on the “Digital Heritage of Mykolaiv” website. It brings together materials from museum collections and the astronomical observatory. The Mykolaiv City Council announced the update on November 13. Each photograph on the website has a description in Ukrainian and English.
The digital collection includes the following items from the holdings of the Mykolaiv Regional Museum of Local History:
- The 1914 graduation album of the boys’ Alexandrov Gymnasium. It preserves images of the building’s interiors, which were damaged by missile strikes, as well as portraits of its teachers. Among them is artist Volodymyr Murzanov, the first director of the Mykolaiv Art Museum.
- The 1904 album of students from the girls’ Maryinsky Gymnasium. In addition to the interiors, the photographs show the façade in detail. It is currently being restored with support from the government of Denmark.
- Photographs of performers from the “Blue Blouse” troupe, which operated at the “Plow and Hammer” factory, later known as “Dormashyna”. The collection also features performers from the touring theater “Donbas Miner”, which relocated to Mykolaiv.
- Photographs of athletic performances featuring diving at the Mykolaiv Yacht Club in the 1920s.
Another addition is the album “Surveying Mykolaiv” from 1930, from the collection of the Mykolaiv Astronomical Observatory Research Institute. Its photographs show specialists from the newly established Dipromisto carrying out a geodetic survey of the city.
These photographs offer a glimpse of Mykolaiv as it was known to previous generations and preserve the memory of buildings that are now being restored.
The project was carried out in collaboration with Mykolaiv museums by:
- the MY ART platform;
- the Mykolaiv Development Agency.
The Ukrainian Cultural Foundation provided support through its “Cultural Heritage” grant program.
We previously reported:
- Historic photos of Mykolaiv made available to everyone in a digital archive
- Mykolaiv is restoring its oldest school, damaged by shelling
- Mykolaiv to digitize 500 historic photos from three museum collections
- Mykolaiv during the Nazi occupation: rare archival footage shared online
- Mykolaiv to digitize a collection of marine paintings rescued from the Ochakiv Museum
