Exhibition shows how Ukrainian immigrants braved the cold in Canada

Even with modern-day conveniences such as furnaces, water heaters and insulated jackets, Saskatchewan residents know it can still be difficult to stay warm in frigid winter weather.

Which raises the question: how did people survive the elements here 100 years ago?

The way these things were constructed, too, they would last forever. Some of the pieces in here are 150 years old.- Janet Prebushewsky Danyliuk

The Ukrainian Museum of Canada in Saskatoon provides some answers with its current exhibition, Braving the Cold: Winter Wear of Ukrainian Pioneers, which showcases 24 pieces of outerwear from years gone by.

"As a museum we wanted do to something to bring our history alive and also to meet the magic of the season, too, and show that winter was very colourful and very beautiful," said museum director and CEO Janet Prebushewsky Danyliuk.

The oldest pieces on display are a felt coat dating back to 1867 and a sheepskin coat from the 1870s. The most recent pieces are nearly 100 years old, from the 1930s.

Prebushewsky Danyliuk said the exhibition shows how immigrants used the handmade, traditional clothing they brought from Ukraine to adapt to the Canadian winters. Long coats made of felt, sheepskin, fur and wool helped keep the immigrants warm in their new home.

Clothing passed down in families

"We chose things that were worn in Canada upon either immigrating or once they were here, before the influence of contemporary Western fashion took hold," she said.

Some of the pieces are heavy — such as the buffalo coat that is on display. Wearing these pieces, along with layering, would have provided protection from the elements.

Children often wore long coats that touched the ground until they grew taller, since clothes stayed with a person for a long time, and pieces were often passed on to other family members or sold to neighbours, said Prebushewsky Danyliuk.

Clothing tells stories

"The way these things were constructed, too, they would last forever. Some of the pieces in here are 150 years old," said Prebushewsky Danyliuk.

"The other thing about an exhibition like this is the stories the clothing tell — or the artifacts tell — is just so intriguing. It can be really magical. Sometimes we don't have information. But when we do, it really gives a piece of history, of course, and a story about the owners who wore it through the years."

The felt coat dating back to 1867, for example, was made by a 13-year-old girl for her wedding. Since the priest would not allow her to marry at that age, she wore the coat a couple of years later, at the age of 15, when she married a different man. 

Coat worn by teen to community dances

One of the coats on display was made for a 17-year-old girl in 1937 from raw sheep wool gathered by her parents. The wool was taken to a man in the village of Kuty, near the western Ukrainian city of Kosiv, to have a very heavy wool material made. That heavy material was then taken to a tailor near the city of Kitsman to make a popular design.

The coat was worn by the teen when she went to community dances, and she attached a yellow ribbon to it so she could easily find it amongst a stack of jackets. The ribbon remains on the coat to this day.

Prebushewsky Danyliuk said the exhibition provided a way for the museum to showcase some of the 20,000 artifacts in its collection. Some of the pieces on display are "timeless," she said, and some of the shorter jackets "could easily be worn now."

"The tailoring and the construction has really stood the test of time, when you think of how harsh the conditions were when these items were worn," she said.

Interested in seeing the artifacts in person? The Ukrainian Museum of Canada, located at 910 Spadina Cres. E., is holding an open house from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 14. Admission is free.

Braving the Cold: Winter Wear of Ukrainian Pioneers runs at the museum until Feb. 10, 2018.