page_title: Kateryna Skarzhynska
section_title: Philanthrophy 1866–1905
hierarchical_section_title: Kateryna Skarzhynska / Career / Philanthrophy 1866–1905
caption_attribution_description: English: Home of Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, husband of Kateryna Skarzhynska, on the Kruglik estate
context_page_description: Kateryna Skarzhynska née von Reiser was a Ukrainian noblewoman, philanthropist, and collector of folklore. She established the first private museum in Ukraine to house her collection of artifacts and was particularly known for her collection of pysanky, Easter eggs decorated with Ukrainian folk art. Born in Lubny to the von Reiser family, which had a long history of military service to the Russian Tsars, she was educated at home, studying in her parents' library and with select tutors. After her father died in 1859, together with her mother, brother, and maternal grandmother she moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province of the Russian Empire, near Moscow. There at the age of 14, von Reiser established a school for the former serfs of the estate and a public hospital.
  In 1869, von Reiser became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a Ukrainian nobleman and soldier. Through his circle of friends, she decided to continue her education and passed her gymnasium studies, entering the Bestuzhev Courses. They married in 1874 and later would have five children together. Five years later, he was transferred from St. Petersburg back to Ukraine.
context_section_description: When she turned 14, von Reiser set up a school for the former serfs on her grandparent's estate in Nikolskoye in the Vyshnevolotsky Uyezd and worked alongside the teacher she hired. She also established a hospital to treat local patients. In 1869, she became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a nobleman, who became a major general in the Russian Army, specializing in providing horses for the cavalry. Skarzhynsky was descended of a noble-Cossack family of Polish-Ukrainian roots, through Ivan Mikhailovich Skarzhinsky, of the Lubny Regiment. His friends, who were part of the Russian intelligentsia, inspired her to continue with her education and she passed the exams for the women's gymnasium in Lubny. She then attended the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg, visiting cultural landmarks, such as the Hermitage Museum and the Russian Academy of the Arts. In 1874, she married Skarzhynsky at the Church of the Greatmartyr George in Kiev. The couple returned to St. Petersburg, where she continued her studies until 1879, when they were interrupted by her husband's transfer back to Ukraine.
  Skarzhynska returned to her family estate at Kruglik, where she and her husband lived in separate houses. They had an open relationship, each able to have other relationships, without hostility between the couple. She and Skarzhynsky would have five children: Kateryna, Volodymyr, Olga, Alexander, and Natalia. Fascinated by the local folk art and handicrafts, she began collecting artifacts, with the help of historian Grigory Kiryakov. In 1880, Skarzhynska founded the first private museum in Ukraine, collaborating with the noted archaeologist and curator Fyodor Kaminsky on its organization. Kaminsky worked at the museum from 1881 to 1891 as the head curator. The museum was originally housed in a room in the Skarzhynsky's home, but later expanded to a two-story structure with a lobby and six exhibit halls, adjacent to a park and greenhouse. She corresponded with many scientists from throughout Russia and participated in archaeological seminars, as well as fact-finding trips. In 1883, Skarzhynska traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, visiting the Polytechnic Museum, Rumyantsev Museum and State Historical Museum to study materials and acquire knowledge and equipment for running her own museum. That year she also met with officials from the Moscow Archaeological Society and Kiev University Archaeological Museum.
  Skarzhynska made archaeological excavations in the mountains near Lubny and led expeditions to dig in the Posulli grounds, an historic area covering the Sula River basin. She also paid for excavations by Kaminsky and others, and established a program where she would pay a reward for the recovery of iconostasis and other artifacts, details of the history of rural churches, and items of local historic interest.  She amassed a large collection of Ukrainian folk art on Easter eggs known as pysanky. She tried to interest the city of Lubny in establishing a museum for her collection, but they felt the expense for such a luxury was unjustified. Skarzhynska went ahead and established the museum herself. Skarzhynska did not charge for entry to the museum, which contained over 35,000 items, including archaeological artifacts, coins, Cossack antiquities, personal archives and autographs of notable Ukrainian families, and 4,000 books, housed in a scientific library. Her activities on behalf of the museum resulted in her election to several scientific societies, including the Moscow Numismatic Society and the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography.
  In 1891, Kaminsky left the museum, and died later that same year, after recommending hiring his assistant, Sergiy Klimentiyovich Kulzhynskiy as replacement curator. Kulzhynskiy had originally arrived at Kruglik in 1889, and upon Kaminsky's recommendation became the tutor for the Skarzhynsky children, Olga, Volodymyr, and Natalia. That year, Skarzhynska established an agricultural school on land owned by her husband in the village of Terny, donating the land to the lo
caption: Home of Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky on the Kruglik estate
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