On June 1, the Museum and Exhibition Center of the Museum of Kyiv History presented an exhibition dedicated to the lives of Kyiv’s children a century ago.
The exhibition explores everyday life, traditions, and childhood experiences in Kyiv during the early 20th century, highlighting historical artifacts, photographs, and personal stories that bring the past vividly to life.
Visitors are invited to learn about how children played, studied, and grew up in the context of Kyiv’s evolving urban and cultural landscape 100 years ago.
On International Children’s Day, together with Vogue Ukraine, we are publishing a series of photographic portraits of Ukrainian children, dating back a hundred years, and in some cases even earlier.
Many of the children featured in the selection below came from well-known Ukrainian families: Brailovsky, Soshinsky, Hryhorovych-Barsky. Some of them went on to become prominent public figures; for example, Lesia (Olena) Trebinska carried out active scientific work, translated Rabindranath Tagore into Ukrainian, and received favorable reviews from Rylsky.
If you look closely at the children’s clothing, you will notice that the sailor suit was the most fashionable children’s attire, worn by both boys and girls. Interestingly, until the early 20th century, boys were dressed in dresses. These differed in cut from those made for girls, but visually they looked very similar.
All photos are presented from the collections of the Museum of Kyiv History.