An exhibit on display since October at the Primorye Arsenyeve Museum in Vladivostok presents a shared history that unites America and Russia.
The exhibit, "Eleanor Pray: Letters from Vladivostok, 1894–1930," brings to life the writings of Eleanor Pray, an American citizen who lived in the Russian Far East for more than 40 years, and is based on the research of Birgitta Ingemanson, the Marianna Merritt and Donald S. Matteson Distinguished Professor of Foreign Languages and Cultures.
Ingemanson's collection of more than 2,000 of Pray's letters, written during her time in Vladivostok to friends and family in the U.S., chronicles her life in the Far East and documents historical Vladivostok.
The letters were translated into Russian and published with Pray's photographs in a book that shares the exhibit's title, released on the day the exhibit opened. The book made the "Readers' Top List" at the 10th Non-Fiction International Intellectual Book Fair in Moscow.
Ingemanson holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and teaches Russian and film studies at WSU. Her research interests include cultural topics that border on history, such as travel literature, the work of socialist women, and Ingmar Bergman's film scripts. Starting in 1987, she helped organize the exchange program between WSU and Far Eastern State University in Vladivostok and visited the city for the first time in 1990. She has given lectures at Far Eastern State University and the regional history museum, and she worked during a professional leave at the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Division. She has published several articles on the culture and history of Vladivostok and continues to be engaged in the transcribing and editing of more than 20,000 pages of letters written by Eleanor L. Pray.
The Chronicle, College of Liberal Arts, Washington State University