Photographs from Kamelia Kamenova-Chiron' s collection. Collection presents the Baptist society in Montana before and in the first years after the fall of Communism.
Extent: 29 photographs.
Condition of original material: Medium quality of the photos.
Custodial history: Materials from Kamelia Kamenova-Chiron' s collection of photos that present the culture of the first Baptist Evangelical society in Montana. However, she has some picture that present the pre-Evangelical customs and traditions. She arranged them by type and the Evangelical pictures come first. The interesting fact is that it was ethnically mixed church society (Bulgarian and Gypsy members) during Communist period. They gathered secretly at the pastor's home during that period. The leader of the society was from Gypsy ethnic group (the kalajdzhii, tinsmiths). It was founded in Ferdinand (today Montana) by Gypsy pastor Baro Boev and for many years the home church was in the Gypsy settlement. The Baptist Church officially was registered in 1990.
Author(s)/Creator(s): Unknown photographer.
Arrangement: The photos have been stored in the owner's home in Berkovitsa in a paper box. They were arranged as found.
A note about terminology: Some of the material in this collection relates to Цигани [Tsigani / Gypsy] communities. Since 1989, these communities are often referred to using the term ‘Roma’. However, not all members of these communities accept the term Roma or identify as Roma. In Bulgaria, this is a heterogeneous community that comprises different groups with different ethnic identification (Romani, Bulgarian, Turkish or Rumanian), mother tongue, way of life, religion, and occupation. Moreover, the original material in this collection pre-dates 1989, when the term ‘Roma’ was unknown in Bulgaria. For these reasons, the term ‘Gypsies’ is used to describe these communities in the catalogue rather than ‘Roma’ because this more accurately depicts the identification of the communities recorded in this collection at the time the documents and photographs were created. The Protestant missionaries who worked among this population and whose results are related to the material in the collection, also used the term 'Gypsies'.
