University of Oklahoma Libraries Announces Opening of the Romanoff Collection
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The Romanoff Collection at the University Libraries opened to public research January 2023, after a generous $2 million gift to the University of Oklahoma in late summer 2022.
The collection is part of a gift by Princess Janet Romanoff to the University that also established the Romanoff Center for Russian Studies on the OU-Norman campus, creating the only academic entity named after the Russian royal family in the United States.
The collection contains over 50 cubic feet of archives that includes letters, photographs, and mementos primarily documenting the lives of Prince “Nikita” Nikitich Romanoff, the great nephew of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, his wife, Princess Janet, and their son, Prince Theodore in New York City during the 1970s-2000s, and their travels around the globe.
The papers also contain academic works and research by the Romanoffs on Russian history and literature, and a bound copy of Grand Duchess Xenia’s diaries from the Russian revolutionary period. An assortment of Russian postage stamps and original letters by Nikita’s parents, Prince Nikita Alexandrovich, and Countess Maria Vorontsova-Dashkova, complete the collection.
The University Libraries is working to catalog the Romanoff family library of over 900 volumes.
The Romanoff Collection is available for research by appointment at Bizzell Memorial Library’s 5th Floor Special Research Collections. A guide to the collection is available online at the University Libraries’ ArchivesSpace site.
