The Arkhangelsk Regional Museum of Local Lore is one of the
oldest museums in the North - it was opened on January 1, 1837. The
exposition of the museum is located in two buildings: mainly - the
department of nature, five exhibitions on history, in the museum and
exhibition complex "Gostiny Dvor" - four exhibitions, a concert and
lecture hall, an exhibition and sale of handicrafts.
The most
interesting collections: on archeology and ethnography of the
peoples of the North, history and culture of the region from ancient
times to the present, the development of the Arctic, shipbuilding,
ancient Russian and decorative and applied arts, numismatics and
bonistics, natural science collections, including mineralogical.
Today there are about 170 thousand exhibits in the museum funds.
The richest collections of the museum in a concentrated form reflect
the peculiarities and diversity of northern nature, recreate the
vivid history of the region from ancient times to the present day,
the depth of time and the drama of its fate.
In 1836, on behalf of Nicholas I, the Minister of Internal Affairs
sent an order "On the establishment in all provinces of exhibitions of
products and samples of factory, factory crafts and all kinds of local
industry ...", in accordance with which exhibits were sent to
Arkhangelsk for an exhibition from all over the Arkhangelsk province .
1837 is considered the year of the beginning of the formation of the
collection.
In 1861, the exhibition was transferred to the
provincial statistical committee and received the status of a museum.
On December 17, 1897, the City Duma, at the request of the governor,
named the museum the Arkhangelsk City Public Museum.
After the
revolution in 1920, the Northern Regional Museum was created on the
basis of the museum.
In 1938, after the formation of the
Arkhangelsk region, the museum received its modern name - the
Arkhangelsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. During the Second World War,
the most valuable part of the museum collections was evacuated to
Solvychegodsk. After the end of the war, the exposition was restored.
In 1976 the museum moved to a new building on Lenin Square. A
full-scale museum exposition was opened there. In this regard, in the
1970s and 1980s, the museum's collections were replenished especially
intensively.
In 1981, the Gostiny Dvor of Arkhangelsk was
transferred to the museum.
Since 2007, the Arkhangelsk Museum of
Local Lore has been using the Arkhangelsk Novodvinsk Fortress, the first
stone bastion seaside fortress in Russia, built in 1701-1721.
A
new stage in the history of the museum is associated with the completion
of the restoration of Gostiny Dvor in 2012, where at the moment the main
part of expositions and exhibitions is located, the architectural and
artistic solution of which is based on the use of modern multimedia
technologies that contribute to the creation of a historical and
cultural image of the region through a complex of sound and visual
impressions.
In addition to classic exhibitions, the museum
offers a variety of interactive spaces. Developing thematic excursion
programs and organizing large-scale exhibition and educational projects,
today the Arkhangelsk Museum of Local Lore is a major cultural center of
the region.
Museum buildings
two lower floors in a
multi-storey building on Lenin Square
historical and architectural
complex "Arkhangelsk Gostiny Dvor" on the embankment of the Northern
Dvina
monument of federal significance "Arkhangelsk Novodvinsk
fortress", located in the Maimaksan district of Arkhangelsk, 20 km north
of the city center
The beginning of the formation of the collection of one of the oldest
museums in Russia - the Arkhangelsk Museum of Local Lore - was laid in
1837 at the "Exhibition of Works of the Province", organized by decree
of the Governor I. I. Ogaryov.
Today, the museum's funds include
265 thousand items that comprehensively reflect the historical, cultural
and natural identity of Pomorie - this is almost half of the entire
museum collection of the Arkhangelsk region. Among them are unique
mineralogical, natural-science, documentary, numismatic and photographic
collections, the richest collections of objects of material culture.
Of particular value are the unique collections of ancient Russian
sewing, tempera painting, handwritten and early printed books, carved
bones from Kholmogory, folk art objects, archaeological materials and a
mineralogical collection, a slab with prints of the Vendian fauna -
there are only two similar 550 million year old slabs in the world: one
is in Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and
the other - in the Arkhangelsk Museum of Local Lore. Both were
discovered on the Winter coast of the White Sea.
Individual
rarities are of worldwide importance: Tyapinsky's Gospel of 1570; a
collection of objects from the wintering of Willem Barentsz in 1598;
things that belonged to the most august persons, statesmen and public
figures of Russia - Peter I, Princess Sophia, Metropolitan Filaret,
Patriarch Nikon, Mikhail Lomonosov, John of Kronstadt ...
In
addition to the collection of the museum, which began to be collected
back in the 19th century, about five thousand archeological objects from
all over the Arctic coast of Russia were transferred to the funds by the
employees of the Marine Arctic Complex Expedition (MAKE) led by
Professor Pyotr Vladimirovich Boyarsky.