Valentyna and Michael Pashkievich collection: an overview
The University of Toronto Libraries house a unique collection of Belarusian-language publications from the estate of Valentyna and Michael Pashkievich. Donated in 2010, the Pashkievich collection comprises Belarusian rare books, pamphlets, and periodicals spanning from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Valentyna Pashkievich, a pedagogue and a scholar of the Belarusian language, authored two volumes of Fundamental Byelorussian, published in Toronto in the 1970s. She and her husband shared bibliophile interests and collected Belarusian-language books and periodicals. The Pashkievich collection includes textbooks and scholarly works on the Belarusian language, dictionaries, historical and literary works, as well as over 60 titles of serials published by Belarusian émigrés in France, Germany, Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the USA. The greater part of the collection is in the circulating collection of the University of Toronto Libraries, while the material published during the interwar and the Second World War periods and in emigration, and featured in this exhibit, is housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.
The material featured in this online exhibit illustrates the multifaceted nature of publications from these periods. These publications are highlighted for their thematic, geographic, and chronological aspects. The periodicals and books are a valuable resource for the historical study of ideology and propaganda during the Second World War, of Belarusian nationalism, and the publishing activities of the Belarusian refugees in displaced persons camps and the Belarusian diaspora in Canada and internationally.