The Kashchenko Collection

The museum also holds several collections of items assembled by individual collectors. One of the most important of these is the collection accumulated by Petro Kashchenko, an officer in the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence. Immediately prior to the war he bartered for or purchased more than one hundred embroidery fragments, parts of embroidered linen clothing, and other folk art items in eastern Podillia, Bukovyna, Pokutia, Opilia, and the Hutsul, Boiko and Lemko regions of Ukraine. He managed to hold on to his collection through many hard years of war and resettlement, and finally donated it to the Museum in 1972. It has been estimated that some of these items date to the 18th century, making them some of the oldest and most important Ukrainian folk art items in the permanent collection of any museum in the Western Hemisphere.