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Lights off, spotlight on: 1,000 glass slides and the first slide lectures of the Volkskundemuseum Wien

The first 1,000 slide numbers in the inventory of the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Art and Folk Life) were primarily produced between 1900 and 1927 for (popular) scholarly slide lectures, often focusing on geographical and cultural aspects of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. As early as around 1900, many of these glass slides were used by museum staff in so-called "sciopticon lectures" (from Greek dia = through, skopein = to look). However, a systematic cataloguing and inventorying of the slides only began around 1915. The corresponding entries are usually limited to a brief description of the depicted subject. Additional information – such as details on production or use – is almost entirely lacking.

Only the clear thematic structure of the inventory book provides clues about the content of the lectures illustrated by these images. Lecturers with backgrounds in folklore studies – such as Michael Haberlandt (1860–1940), Arthur Haberlandt (1889–1964), Rudolf Trebitsch (1876–1918), Marianne Schmidl (1890–1945), and Konrad Mautner (1880–1924) – presented their slide shows primarily at the Wiener Urania, the University of Vienna, various associations, and at the Volkskundemuseum Wien itself. After the founding of the State Office for Adult Education (Volksbildungsamt) in 1919, the slides were increasingly used in educational courses for teachers.

Between Documentation and Staging: Photographs from Galicia and Bukovina in the Photographic Collection of the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art)

The first catalogued object in the photo collection of the Volkskundemuseum Wien, pos/1, was taken in 1894 in Bukovina by Josef Szombathy (1853–1943). It depicts Austriaplatz in Czernowitz. Further photographs from the then Austrian crown lands – the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and the Duchy of Bukovina – entered the collection from 1896 onwards. At the time, the photo collection was still part of the library of the Museum für österreichische Volkskunde.

The term Galicia refers to a historical region that extended across what is now southern Poland and western Ukraine. At the eastern edge of Galicia lay the smaller historical region of Bukovina, which today is part of Ukraine and Romania. The former territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was divided among Prussia, Russia, and Austria in three partitions (1772, 1793, and 1795) following military conflicts. The areas assigned to Habsburg rule became known as Galicia and Bukovina.

Beehive Front Boards

In the 19th century, bee houses equipped with box-shaped beehives became popular in Carniola, Carinthia, and the northwestern part of Slovenian Styria.

A distinctive feature of the beehives from this region are the painted front boards mounted on the wooden boxes, each with a small entrance hole along the lower edge. The Volkskundemuseum Wien houses more than 230 such painted boards, featuring a wide range of motifs. Religious themes, rural life, satirical scenes, as well as technological innovations and historical events are reflected in these painted depictions.

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Marianne Strobl (1865–1917)

Albums

Lights off, spotlight on: 1,000 glass slides and the first slide lectures of the Volkskundemuseum Wien

Between Documentation and Staging: Photographs from Galicia and Bukovina in the Photographic Collection of the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art)

Beehive Front Boards

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