Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography

Categories / Science. Education/Science and Planning Institutions
Categories / Science. Education/Museums
MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Kunstkammer) (MAE) (3 University Embankment), a science and research institution and museum founded in 1879 after a merger of the Museum of Ethnography and the Museum of Anatomy of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, awarded the name of Peter the Great in 1902. In 1933 the collection was relocated to Miklukho-Maclay Institute of Ethnography and Anthropology of the USSR Academy of Sciences and in 1992 again became an independent entity. It was the collection of Petersburg's oldest Kunstkammer museum (founded by Peter the Great in 1714) that laid the foundation for the present museum collection. At present the museum is located in the Kunstkammer building. In 2000 the museum collection included about 1,900,000 exhibits. The exposition contains collections acquired by Peter the Great (including a collection of anatomic preparations by Dutch anatomist F. Ruysch), and household items of foreign peoples, collected during different expeditions by G. F. Miller, S. P. Krasheninnikov, F. P. Litke, I. G. Voznesensky, N. N. Miklukho-Maclay, V. V. Yunker, V. V. Radlov, L. Y. Sternberg, V. G. Bogoraz and other scholars. Museum funds also hold materials on the culture of the peoples of the former USSR. In 1993 Lomonosov Museum became a branch of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. The museum’s research programme focused on the study of ethnic history and contemporary processes within various nations, ethnogenesis and ethnic history of the peoples living on the territory of Russia and abroad; traditional issues of social organisation, material and spiritual culture; ethnic anthropology, ethno-sociology, and folklore. The names of ethnographers S. V. Ivanov, А. А. Popov, S. М. Abramzon, N. А. Kislyakov, L. I. Lavrov, N. V. Kuener, K. V. Vyatkina, O. L. Vilchevsky, D. I. Tikhonov, D. А. Olderogge, D. K. Zelenin and others are closely associated with the museum. The museum also initiated a number of publication series including [Afrikana]. African Ethnographic Collection (from 1964), Folklore and Ethnography (from 1970). The museum has also published Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography Miscellany (from 1900), Kunstammer: Ethnography notebooks Journal (since 1993 published in collaboration with St. Petersburg Oriental Studies Centre), Messenger of Peter's Kunstkammer (from 1995), and Anthropology Today (from 1995). Since 1985 the museum has held conferences on Ethnography of St. Petersburg (known until 1991 as Ethnography of St. Petersburg - Leningrad with issues 1-3 published in 1987-92).

References: Итс Р. Ф. Кунсткамера. 3-е изд. Л., 1989; Таксами Ч. М., Шафрановская Т. К., Иванова Е. В. Приглашаем в Кунсткамеру. СПб., 2001; 285 лет петербургской Кунсткамере: Материалы итоговой науч. конф. МАЭ РАН... СПб., 2000. (Сб. Музея антропологии и этнографии им. Петра Великого; Т. 48).

O. N. Ansberg, А. Y. Chistyakov. Abramson S.M.
Bogoraz-Tan Vladimir Germanovich
Its Rudolf Ferdinandovich
Ivanova S.V.
Kislyakov Nikolay Andreevich
Krasheninnikov Stepan Petrovich
Kyuner Nikolay Vasilievich
Lavrov L.I.
Litke Fedor Petrovich
Lomonosov Mikhail Vasilievich
Miklukho-Maclay Nikolay Nikolaevich
Muller Gerard Friedrich
Olderogge Dmitry Alexeevich
Peter I, Emperor
Popov A.F.
Radlov Vasily Vasilievich (Friedrich Wilhelm)
Rheush Frederick
Sternberg Lev (Haim) Yakovlevich
Tikhonov D.I.
Vilchevsky O.L.
Voznesensky I.G.
Vyatkina K.V.
Yunker Vasily Vasilievich
Zelenin D.K.
Universitetskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Итс Р. Ф. Кунсткамера. 3-е изд. Л., 1989
285 лет петербургской Кунсткамере: Материалы итоговой науч. конф. МАЭ РАН... СПб., 2000
Шафрановская Т. К., Иванова Е. В., Таксами Ч. М. Приглашаем в Кунсткамеру. СПб., 2001 Kunstkammer
Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography