History between the pages
The Volkskundemuseum Wien collections
The digital world of the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) brings together the previously separately held collections (objects and photographs), the library and the archive. The collection’s data is very profound, linked to standardised data and also connected in terms of content. Of particular interest are the devotional image collection by Gustav Gugitz, which includes over 8,000 objects, as well as the Old Gmunden faiences. Equally outstanding are the 3D models of selected objects from the historic display, which was dismantled and moved into storage at the beginning of 2024 due to the museum’s renovation. The presentation of a ceramics collection from Prinzess-Keramik, a Vienna-based production facility from the post-war period, made it possible for the first time to analyse and publish the company's history including the biographies of founders Hertha Reisinger and Otto Maria Weinzinger.
Hidden perspectives
Alongside the oldest positives, negatives and slides, the photo collection presents the photographic archives of Eugenie Goldstern and Rudolf Trebitsch. For too long, Eugenie Goldstern's photographic legacy has been neglected. This void urgently needs to be filled in order to do justice to this researcher who set new standards in ethnological research in a male-dominated field in circa-1910 Vienna.
Preserving at-risk collection
The photographs from the historic regions of Galicia and Bukovina are of great significance for ethnographic, art historical and cultural studies and have been in high demand for several years. In the light of the destruction of cultural assets as a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, these photographs yet again gain significance in terms of documentation work.
Fairy tales, myths, marginalia
The Myth Library has been part of the museum since 1946, and a research project investigated its provenance and ownership. In 2019, a lease agreement was concluded between the Austrian government as owner and lender, represented by the Federal Minister for the EU, Arts, Culture and the Media, and the museum and its association as borrower (Verein/Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde). The museum has undertaken to ‘keep objects on loan available to the public’.
A considerable number of the approximately 1,700 works come from the library of Albert Wesselski. The scholar, who died in Prague in 1939, was a well-known fairy tale researcher and editor of many fairy tale editions published by renowned publishing houses. Many of his books contain handwritten entries, which are yet to be scientifically researched, assessed and processed.