Vilniaus fotografija - kultūros paveldo dalis

ENPhotography and its history - the substantial part of a cultural heritage valuable with its ethnic, historical, art, scientific, religious and other points of view. The retrospective and publishing activities started under the initiative of the Lithuanian National Museum have pushed to take an interest in the old Vilnius photography sources which are not completely investigated by the photography researchers and which are unknown to the wide public. They are related to the Lithuanian Vilnius community’s activities in the beginnings of the XX century; reflect some specific national life phenomena. The first source - photo archives collected by the Lithuanian learned society that are stored in the Library of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore. It is rather big in terms of the volume and is designated with the thematic variety of its collections of photos. The Lithuanian learned society was interested in various iconographic material related to the Vilnius history, the cultural artifacts. In the society’s archives, there are the photos and the cards with the Vilnius townscapes and his vicinities, the suburbs, the monuments of architecture, their interiors, the streets, the squares. Collecting the photos was not the priority activity of this society. However, they are perceived as to be of the museum value, though they were collected more as a secondary source of information. The second source - the photos from the collections of the Vilnius Lithuanians theatre and the composer Konstantinas Galkauskas that arc stored in the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum.