FACES AND PLACES: Returning to the source (08/17/97)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Returning to the source

One corner of the world Lesia and I love to visit is the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) in St. Paul, Minn.

One of many research centers associated with the University of Minnesota, the IHRC was founded in 1965 by Dr. Rudolph J. Vecoli, a professor of history at the university, and others, including Dr. Alexander A. Granovsky (1887-1976). Prof. Granovsky was a world-famous entomologist at the university and for many years president of the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODVU).

I spent many enjoyable days at the center engaged in research for my first book, "The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884-1954," as well as my latest book, "Ukrainian-American Citadel: The First One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian National Association."

When Lesia was doing research for her master's thesis ("Svoboda and the Education of Rusyn-Ukrainians, 1893-1914: A Study of an Ethnic Newspaper") at Northern Illinois University, she also spent many hours digging through the archives at the IHRC.

Both of us returned in July to present the fruits of our labors to the center. We expressed our gratitude to Dr. Vecoli, Joel F. Wurl, curator, and especially Halyna Myroniuk, assistant curator, who were so accommodating when Lesia and I were working at the IHRC. Also present for our presentation was John Radzilowski who, as editor, worked so diligently on my final text of "Ukrainian-American Citadel" to make it more readable and credible.

It should be noted that for Lesia, an invaluable document at the center was "Svoboda: A Select Index," a four-volume publication of the IHRC which provided a guide to articles published in Svoboda between 1893 and 1918. Funded by the Ukrainian National Association, the index was compiled by Roman Stepchuk and edited by Walter Anastazievsky. There are no plans to fund future volumes of the index.

In 1976, the IHRC was awarded a grant of $75,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the first phase of a project to survey and preserve the records of ethnic fraternal associations in the United States. Many ethnic mutual aid societies including all four Ukrainian fraternals, responded to the survey. According to Ms. Myroniuk, however, none of our fraternals have as yet donated their records to the IHRC. This is most unfortunate, especially since there is talk of future mergers among our fraternals.

Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of visionaries such as Dr. Granovsky and others, the Ukrainian collection at the IHRC is one of the largest and perhaps the richest collection of its kind in the world. The papers of hundreds of Ukrainian Americans can be found at the center, including such luminaries as Vasyl Avramenko, Yaroslav Chyz, Stephan Golash, Alexander Granovsky, Wasyl Halich, Jacques Hnizdovsky, Michael Komichak, Stephan Kuropas, Denys Kwitkowsky, Myron Leskiw, Maria Malevich, Evhen Onatsky, John Panchuk, Youry Pundyk, Jaroslav Rudnyckj, Myroslaw Sichynsky, Yar Slavutych, Matthew Stachiw, Jurij Teodorowycz, Philip and Anna Wasylowsky, and Al Yaremko. The latest additions are the personal papers of Eugene Skotzko, a Ukrainian American activist and director of the Ukrainian Press Bureau in Washington during the 1930s and 1940s. Later, Mr. Skotzko worked in the Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Other important collections include the archives of organizations such as the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, and various local branches of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

Over a hundred different newspaper collections can be found at the IHRC, everything from Ameryka to Za Povernennia na Batkivshchynu. Almanacs, books and manuscripts also abound.

The Ukrainian treasure house at the IHRC is growing. Primary sources exist for dozens of doctoral dissertations and hundreds of master's theses for those interested in doing original historical and sociological research.

During my research I often learned of individuals who had especially unique archives only to learn that after their death, their spouses or their children, who were unaware or disinterested in what that person took years to pull together, tossed the whole thing. Many irreplaceable historical documents were lost in just this way, and with them, part of our heritage. Equally tragic are societies that negate the value of officers who take painstaking minutes of meetings and maintain significant organizational records and correspondence. When those officers are no longer around, their documents are callously trashed.

The IHRC will soon be moving to a different locale, a state-of-the-art building that will house all of the archival collections at the University of Minnesota; there is room, therefore, for other collections. Ukrainians who have valuable archives are urged to contact: Halyna Myroniuk, Immigration History Research Center, 826 Berry St., St. Paul, MN 55114.

Readers interested in obtaining a copy of my UNA history should send a check for $27.50 to Ukrainian Educational Associates, 107 Ilehamwood Drive, DeKalb, IL 60115, or to the Svoboda Book Store, 30 Montgomery St., Jersey City, NJ 07302.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: mbkuropas@compuserve.com

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