Family Archive Photographs as a Historical Source: A Case Study
Irina V. Frolova, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor
Ufa University of Science and Technology, Ufa, Russia, irina.v.frolova@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6687-1963
Abstract
The article demonstrates the potential of photographs from a personal archive to reconstruct missing links in family history, using the biographies of the author’s maternal great-grandfathers, Iosif Seliverstovich Vikharev and Dmitry Alekseyevich Lukin, as an example. The photographs are integrated into the historical context through an analytical methodology based on positivist and interpretivist approaches, specialized reference books, oral testimony, and expert assessment. This study identified, interpreted, contextualized, and evaluated a photograph of I. S. Vikharev in military uniform (c. 1900–1901), clarifying the nature of his awards (the Medal for Zeal, the Excellent Marksman Badge) and his personal qualities. A photograph of D. A. Lukin in military uniform (1900) during his service in the Bobruisk Fortress was identified, interpreted, contextualized, and evaluated. A photograph of D. A. Lukin in Austrian captivity (1910s, Příbram) during World War I was identified, interpreted, contextualized, and evaluated. The study emphasizes the importance of using family photographs in scholarly discourse as sources of microhistory, complementing official documents, and specifies their significance in the formation of cultural memory.
Keywords
Family archive photographs, biographical reconstruction, visual sources, military service, photographic interpretation, cultural memory.
For citation:
Frolova I. V. Family Archive Photographs as a Historical Source: A Case Study. Vestnik of Orenburg State Pedagogical University. Electronic Scientific Journal, 2026, no. 1 (57), pp. 207—221. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32516/2303-9922.2026.57.14.
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