Among the "museum" professions, the photographer occupies an important place. It is visualized thanks to him, the museum collection and the results of the activities of scientific staff and the entire institution are verified, is humanized, comes to life, history becomes recognizable. Та, на превеликий жаль, the name of the museum photographer is extremely rarely mentioned in publications.
At one time, Ivan Leonidovych Wachhausen worked as a photographer in the Chernihiv Historical Museum. He was born 7 February (27 January) 1892 Dr.. in Zhytomyr. At the beginning of the 20th century. moved to Chernihiv with his parents, graduated from the boys' gymnasium, entered the law faculty of Kyiv University. Do 1917 Dr.. with the beginning of the revolution, he left his studies and returned home. Began working as a secretary-accountant at the Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities V.V. Tarnovsky, and in the second half of the 1920s - 1931 year - photographer of the Chernihiv State Museum.
The amateur artist Ivan Wachhausen was fond of drawing, dreamed of becoming a professional artist in the future. He was a member of the Chernihiv Art Society, established 1916 year. Organizers of the regional art exhibition, open 27 October 1940 Dr.. in the Chernihiv State Historical Museum, noted the successful winter landscape of I. Wachhausen.
As a museum photographer, Ivan Leonidovych took part in B. Luhovsky's expedition to study the repertoire of elders at the Chernihiv fair "Desyatukha" 1925 р., in archaeological excavations during the construction of Dniproges.
21 June 1925 р., "Desyatukha" fair, photo by I. Wachhausen:
"Pud on Friday", "Boris Luhovsky communicates with the elders".
// Родовід (Kyiv). 1993, № 6, with. 100–101.
Photographed museum objects, city views, architectural monuments, objects of historical and cultural heritage, fragments of expositions and exhibitions for publication in scientific and popular scientific publications. So, author's photo of I. Wachhausen "Friday Church of the 12th-13th centuries. from the southern side" illustrates P. Smolichev's essay "Chernihiv and its surroundings during the time of the Grand Duchy" in the book "Chernihiv and the Northern Left Bank". reviews. Intelligence. Materials" and, obviously, it was he who took pictures for the articles of V. Drozdov and V. Shugaevsky for the same edition, because the signatures to them contain only the name of the object and a reference to the museum without indicating the name of the photographer. Photo by Wachhausen "Chernihiv fortress of the 17th-18th centuries.", "Chernihiv Power Station" and "Chernihiv State Museum" can be seen in the essay of S. Baran-Butovych "Chernihiv as an object of historical and local history excursions".
You have to think, that I. Wachhausen made the illustrations for the museum editions of 1928–1930 - "Portraits of the Red Living Room", "Jubilee exhibition of M. Kotsyubynskyi", "Exhibition by T. Shevchenko", "Exhibition "Religion or Science", etc. Perhaps Ivan Wachhausen also took a group photo of the museum employees, published in the museum "Treasury..", vip. 21, p. 45.
Exhibition, dedicated to M. Kotsyubinsky, In the collection of Ukrainian antiquities of the famous patron and public figure Vasyl Tarnovsky, a sample of Italian artillery of the 16th century was kept., 1928 р.:
a view of the hall and a fragment of the exhibition.
The museum photographer performed not only creative work, and also copied documents to create exhibitions, when for some reason it was impossible to use the originals. In the museum archive, except for the original gendarme cards of the late 19th and early 20th centuries., the photo is saved, made from such a short, on the back of which we have an inscription in a simple pencil: “Taken from arch. materials photo. Wachhausen for the department. P(evolutionary). Movement in July 1931". Thanks to this, an uninteresting photo from the point of view of the one depicted on it serves as an interesting source of information about the work of the museum.
Photo of gendarme card
Apparently, museum photographer, often "unknown", nameless, is an important participant in the creation and writing of history and deserves it, to make his name known.
Senior researcher Svitlana Sergeeva,
scientific secretary Lyudmila Linyuk
For more information about our hero, see: Sergeeva S.M. Ivan Leonidovych Wachhausen. The fate of the former museum photographer // Treasury of Ukrainian culture: Collection of scientific works. Vip. 21. Chernihiv, 2020. С. 126–132.
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