This collection was assembled by John Luczkiw (1923-1974), an immigrant who arrived in Canada in 1950. The collection contains material on Ukrainians published in Canada from 1900 to 1950. Most of the material pertains to the first wave of Ukrianian immigration which began in 1891 and ended with the coming of the First World War, and the second wave of immigration which lasted from about 1922 to 1939. The collection includes the publications of various Ukrainian-language publishing houses and printing presses, including the Socialist press of the inter-war period. Taken together, the collection is a record of the life and times of an emigrant community struggling to maintain its cultural heritage far from its homeland and under very difficult conditions. These struggles are recounted in national, local, and institutional histories, and in novels, plays, and poetry. These works address the question of what it meant to be both a Canadian citizen and a Ukrainian immigrant. Other works sought to maintain interest in and cultural ties with their native land and include new editions of classic Ukrainian writers, primers for the immigrants' Canadian-born children, and a range of polemical literature by Ukrainian-Canadian socialists and nationalists. Another part of the collection includes works instructing immigrants about Canada. John Luczkiw was a World War II refugee, born in Galicia, Western Ukraine. He pursued studies in Germany, and after arriving in Canada attended the University of Toronto. His family donated his collection to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto in 1982.
Collection contributed by: University of Toronto Library
Ukrainian Collection of John Luczkiw 
