Ukrainian Rochester collection
Biographical / Historical note
The Ukrainian Rochester Collection is the largest collection of primary and secondary source material in New York State documenting the Ukrainian-American Community in Rochester and Monroe County, New York. The collection was compiled by Wolodymyr (Mirko) Pylyshenko (see biographical note) and is comprised of approximately 25 cubic feet of materials, including records and minutes from a variety of Rochester-area Ukrainian churches, clubs, schools, and veterans and fraternal organizations; books and magazines published by Rochester-area Ukrainians; family histories, personal memoirs, photographs, fliers and event programs: photographs and ephemera.
The Ukrainian-American Community of Greater Rochester consists of approximately 15,000 to 20,000 residents. They came from Ukraine to America in search of economic, political, religious, and social freedom. Their immigration history is especially complex because Ukraine was at various times occupied by Austria, Russia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland; and as the new immigrants arrived in the United States they were consequently registered as Austrians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians, and Poles.
The majority of Ukrainians came in four waves:
- 1900-1914: Before WWI, mainly from Austro-Hungarian Empire
- 1918-1939: Before WWII, mainly from Poland (Western Ukraine)
- 1947-1965: Displaced Persons from the whole of Ukraine
- 1987-2005: Pentecostals and Baptists from the whole of Ukraine and USSR
Although each wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to the United States for different reasons and sometimes had different goals, they shared traditions, culture, language and a sense of community and common values. At different times, the Ukrainian -American community in Rochester organized its activities in different ways: for example in the 1950's there were seven Ukrainian clubs and one Ukrainian church; in 2006 there are seven Ukrainian churches and only one Ukrainian club. More than 50 organizations have served the Rochester Ukrainian-American community; these groups have included political, religious, business, professional, sports, women's, youth, educational, veterans', reading, and dance clubs and organizations. As individuals and through their organizations, Ukrainian Americans have made major contributions to the culture, social life, and business activities of the Greater Rochester community. The Ukrainian Rochester Collection is an attempt to gather, organize, and annotate the surviving records of the community in an archive that will preserve the history of the first 100 years of Ukrainian-American life in Rochester and make its activities understandable to future generations.
- Title
- Ukrainian Rochester collection
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
- Date
- undated
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Library Details
Part of the Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation Library