Summary Information
| Creator | Arkhimovych, Kira, 1902-1991 |
|---|---|
| Title | Kira Arkhimovych papers |
| ID | g.44 |
| Dates | 1910s-early 1950s |
| Quantity | 0.25 Linear Feet, 1 box |
| Languages | Ukrainian |
| Repository | Ukrainian History and Education Center Archives |
Biographical / Historical
Kira Zahurs'ka-Arkhimovych (Кіра Загурська-Архімович, also spelled Arkhymovych/Архимович) was a Ukrainian and Ukrainian American botanist who specialized in tomato breeding.
She was born in what is now the village of Uhroidy (today Krasnopil' raion, Sumy oblast', Ukraine) in 1902. She completed the Women's Gymnasium in Sumy in 1919, and continued her studies at the Kyiv Agricultural Institute and the Moscow Institute of Sugar Industry. She worked at the Ukrainian Fruit and Berry Scientific Research Institute in Kyiv-Kytaiv (Український науково-дослідний плодово-ягідний інститут). She married fellow-agronomist and botanist Oleksander Arkhimovych. In 1943 they moved to Austria. At the end of the war, they lived in Munich, where she was involved in the Shevchenko Scientific Society (НТШ), and was among the organizers of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (УВАН) and the Ukrainian Technical Husbandry Instutite (Український технічно-господарський інститут), where she worked on tomato breeding and wrote her doctoral thesis.
They were not able to immediately resettle in the West, but her husband obtained a recommendation in 1948 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that allowed him to obtain a position with the Spanish seed company "Prodes" in Valladolid, where he worked on sugar beet and potato breeding. Kira assisted him in this work while also continuing her independent work on tomato breeding. She arrived in the United States in 1952 and found work at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
[sources: Oleksander Arkhimovych papers (Shevchenko Scientific Society, New York); esu.com.ua/search_articles.php?id=15255; Items in this collection]
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of a photograph album summarizing her life and work, two binders with original botanical drawings related to her tomato breeding work, and her doctoral thesis written at the Ukrainian Technical Husbandry Institute (Munich).
Зміст фонду
Фонд складається з фотоальбому про її життя та працю, двох папок з оригінальними ботанічними малюнками, пов'язані з її селекційною роботою з томатами, та її докторською дисертацією, написана в Укр. технічно-господарським інституті в Мюнхені.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form: Identification of item, date (if known); Kira Arkhimovych papers; box number; folder number; Ukrainian History and Education Center Archives, Somerset, New Jersey.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for researcher use. Please contact the archivist (archives@ukrhec.org) for more information and to make arrangements.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright restrictions may apply.
Controlled Access Headings
Subjects
- Plant breeding
Genres
- Photographs
- Academic writing
Related Materials
The papers of Kira's husband Oleksander Arkhimovych are in the archives of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (New York, NY). This collection contains some records and writings by Kira Arkhimovych.
Container List
Photograph album, circa 1910-early 1950s.Scope and ContentsContains approximately 55 photographs of Kira Arkhimovych and her colleagues, clippings related to places where she worked, photographs of her tomato plants, as well as 6 medium-format 120 negatives. It also includes 14 pages of hand-written text by Kira Arkhimovych contining reminiscences and describing the items in the album. Processing InformationPhotographs were originally mounted using paper photo corners on acidic black paper. The items in the album were removed by the processing archivist and remounted with new photo corners on buffered paper in the original arrangement. Photographs of the original album pages are included. |
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| Botanical drawings and diagrams |
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| Thesis, 1947. |
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