Moscow University
Anthropology
Bulletin
Anthropology
Bulletin
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) Russian Academy of Sciences, St.Petersburg
Hartanovich M.F., e-mail: mkhart@yandex.ru; Kopaneva N.P., e-mail: nkopaneva@mail.ru; Kravchenko T.M., e-mail: krav.d@mail.ru
The paper is aimed at the question of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum establishment under the general ideology of museums of science and technologies organization in Russia, as well as at the publication of new data on development of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum ideology, history of acquisition and procurement of exhibits, as well as the role of Institute of Ethnography within the USSR Academy of Sciences and Committee on the History of the Academy of Sciences in the museum establishment. The sources to solve these tasks are the documents from the Russian Academy of Sciences Archive, St.Petersburg Branch of the above archive, as well as M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum archive. History of the M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum is integral with Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), RAS. First of all they are inseparable in terms of ideology and location. The Kunstkamera, being one of the first research institutions in Russia, holds exhibits of Peter the Great time, the anatomic ones in the first place. M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum opened in 1949 was expositionally continuing them - entrance to M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum during the first years of its existence ran through the historic, anatomic and anthropological expositions of the Kunstkamera. The Kunstkamera’s building which was left after the fire of 1747 without its tower was reconstructed in its historic shapes just because the establishment of M.V. Lomonosov’s museum in it. It was highlighted in our article that the building reconstruction and arrangement of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum took place in the hardest for the country and the city postwar years. Owing to vigorous activity of the USSR Academy of Sciences, its President S.I. Vavilov, members of the Kunstkamera, Committee on the History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, academic experts engaged in the establishment of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum the exposition was arranged in 1948 and opened during the General Session of the USSR Academy of Sciences in January 1949. A number of exhibits for M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum were handed over from different institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, from the State Hermitage, the Russian Museum, and Historic Museum. The greatest support for the new museum was provided by the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, which handed over cases and glass cases of the first half of the 18th century. Four items from M.V. Lomonosov’s personal belongings were procured for the museum. Unique exhibits (research instruments, mosaics, models) in the exposition of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum reflect the scientist’s activity in the field of optics, atmospheric electricity, astronomy, chemistry, mosaic art. In order to present Lomonosov’s chemic laboratory, a model of the first Russian research chemic laboratory was made on the base of documents preserved. Later, to study Lomonosov’s compositions of mosaics archeological excavations were implemented in Ust-Ruditsa, on the site of the former Lomonosov’s plant. Materials of the excavations were also granted for the new museum. History of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum and its development throughout almost 65 years shows its integrity both with the evolution of museum institutions, as well as ideological and political guidelines changing over this period.
Kunstkamera, M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum, history of science, holdings of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum, Committee on the History of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Цит.: Hartanovich M.F., Kopaneva N.P., Kravchenko T.M. Establishment and Development of M.V. Lomonosov’s Museum // Moscow University Anthropology Bulletin (Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta. Seria XXIII. Antropologia), 2011; 3/2011; с. 5-26
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