Stefania Ulanowska

Stefania Ulanowska (; , c. 1839 – aft. 1912) was a Belarusian ethnographer, folklorist and writer. She is most known for her work on Latvian culture and the Latgalian language.

Family Ulanowska was born about 1839 in Belarus, but her exact date and place of birth is unknown. Her father was Edmund Bolewski, and her mother was Józef Gacasek. Her father died when she was a child and her mother worked as a teacher. Her husband participated in the January Uprising in 1863, after which the family property was confiscated and he was exiled to Russia. She also wrote of the “wściekła polka” dance performed by mountaineers from the regions of Rabka.

From 1891 to 1895, Ulanowska published Łotysze Inflant Polskich a w szczególności gminy wielońskiej, powiatu rzeżyckiego: obraz etnograficzny, three volumes of ethnographic observations of Latvians living in the eastern part of Latvia. Her work detailed their beliefs, fairytales, folklore, language, traditional culture and religion and included her own translations of songs, proverbs and riddles from Latgalian to Polish. She collected material for the three volumes in the small town Viļāni. Her works were published by the Academy of Learning.

Later life Ulanowska is thought to have returned to Belarus before 1912, but her date and place of death are unknown.