Petrov P.N. (1827-1891), Art Historian, Regional Ethnographer

Categories / Science. Education/Personalia
PETROV Peter Nikolaevich (1827, St. Petersburg - 1891, St. Petersburg), art historian, regional ethnographer, writer. An honorary associate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1864). Studied at the House for the Upbringing of Poor Children of the Imperial Philanthropic Society in 1840-46. Petrov was an official of the Department of State Treasury in 1847-60. At the same time, he attended classes at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He worked at the Imperial Public Library from the 1860s-70s. He also worked at the Central Statistics Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from 1866. Petrov contributed to the journals Iskusstvo, Illyustratsiya, and Severnoe Siyanie, and to Encyclopaedia, edited by A. A. Kraevsky and P. L. Lavrov. He wrote over 300 articles on Russian history, art history, and the history of St. Petersburg. In 1885, he published the book History of St. Petersburg from Its Foundation to the Introduction of the City Administration according to the Decree on Provinces, 1703-1782, into which he put little known facts about the construction of the city, everyday life, and trade and industrial activity. He compiled the Collection of Materials for the History of the Imperial Academy of Arts for its One Hundred Year Jubilee (volumes 1-4, 1863-66). In 1872, he published the book An Album of the 200th Anniversary of Emperor Peter the Great. He also studied the genealogy of Russian nobility, and wrote a number of stories and novels. He participated in the works of the Archaeological Society and the Historical Society at the St. Petersburg University. Petrov was buried at Volkovskoe Orthodox Cemetery.

V. B. Gendrikov. Kraevsky Andrey Alexandrovich
Lavrov Peter Lavrovich
Petrov Peter Nikolaevich
Ministry of Internal Affairs
Historical Society of St. Petersburg University