Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, the oldest museum in the Urals, today is a cultural and scientific museum association with a worldwide reputation. It includes 9 museums in Yekaterinburg, 10 museums in the Sverdlovsk region, an information and library center, a restoration workshop and a center for innovative technologies. The museum is officially recognized as the cultural heritage of the region.
Address of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore: Ekaterinburg, Malysheva street, 46.
Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers (UOLE)
Uole, which brought together people of various professions, interests and material we alth, arose in Yekaterinburg in 1870. These people were connected by interest and love for the history of their land. Fortunately, there was a person who brought together amateur local historians, made their achievements more significant and valuable.
Onesim Kler - a Swiss who was immediately christened in the Russian manner Onisim Yegorovich - taught at the male gymnasium in Yekaterinburg. Having moved to a new place, he became interested in the surroundings of the city, nature, sights. Here, in the gymnasium, he found like-minded people, and Uole was born here. And along with it, on the initiative of teachers, the local history museum (Sverdlovsk). Since January 2018, the museum has been named after O. Clair.
Creation of UOLÉ is the greatest historical event of the Ural region. What he laid almost 150 years ago in the cultural development of the city is still bearing its generous fruits.
First steps to create a museum
The first exhibits of the newly created museum were books that the donor brought from his home. Then a collection of minerals and a snake, alcoholized in a flask, were added. There was no place to store these things, so they were in the homes of the members of the WALE. The premises for the museum - two small rooms - were allocated by the city authorities only a year later. So, the future Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore was located on its first legal square in the building of the mining department. But the members of the Society could not put their treasures on display for visitors due to lack of space.
The museum fund grew. Certain collections have already begun to form: zoological, mineralogical, paleontological and botanical. Further replenishment of the fund through donations led to the birth of new collections. Someone brought 40 coins as a gift, and it was decided to create a numismatic direction. Whenthe student showed Clair what looked like a stone axe, and began to form an archaeological collection.
Three years later, the Mining Authority was able to allocate more space, but due to rapidly growing funds, there was still little space.
Opening of the museum for visits
The fact that, despite the difficulties, the museum still opened, cannot be called an accident. Members of the WOLLE, using all their capabilities, sought to put the treasures they had collected on display as soon as possible. On their initiative, in 1887, the Siberian-Ural Scientific and Industrial Exhibition was held in the city, which was a great success. At the end of the exhibition, the museum inherited one of the buildings of the mining department in the city center, as well as part of the exhibits. The museum fund has doubled and consisted of more than 13 thousand items. There was already something and where to demonstrate. The museum opened to the public in December 1888, with 1,300 visitors in its first year of operation.
Museum Development
The Museum of Local Lore was so famous in Russia that the Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich became its curator, which gave the right to an allowance from the treasury: two thousand rubles a year. In 1912, the museum already had 17 departments with 30 thousand items.
In 1895 there was a fire that damaged both the building and the collections. The City Duma allocated a free piece of land in the center of Yekaterinburg for the construction of a building for a museum. In 1911, in the presence of dignitaries, athe solemn laying of the building, which was never destined to appear. While the project was being worked on, while Wole was taking over the land, the First World War broke out. The money promised to build the building was denied.
But the museum worked in an old, renovated building. After 1910, the number of visitors increased to 14,000 a year. This was due to an increase in the population of the city due to people evacuated to Yekaterinburg and the wounded, restoring he alth here.
Museum in the pre-war USSR
In 1920, more than 20 thousand people visited the museum, there were already 42 thousand items in the collections, 11 departments were created. In 1925, by decision of the city authorities, the museum ceased to exist as part of the UOL and became an independent institution. On the basis of the state Ural (now Sverdlovsk) regional museum of local lore, an exposition was created that demonstrated the historical significance of the party course. Strict requirements were set for the ideological nature of all compositions.
The museum was closed for some time. He was looking for suitable premises for new tasks. The issue was resolved by providing two buildings. One housed the repository of funds, and the other worked departments. Thus, in 1927, on Lenin Street, 69, the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore was opened with new expositions. The city gave the museum several more rooms for exhibitions and collections.
Post-war years
In 1941 the museum closes again,exhibits are conserved for long-term storage. The premises were withdrawn to accommodate the collections evacuated from St. Petersburg, as well as the design bureau of the plant producing tanks. After the war, the museum opens in the premises of the Ascension Church and continues to work. The expositions are shown in several small buildings, which had to be changed from time to time. But at the same time, the scientific library was expanding, a planetarium was opened, and a restoration workshop began to work.
In the 60s of the last century, museum specialists created an exposition of the department of nature, made at such a high level that it was recognized as a standard, and museum workers from all over the USSR came to get acquainted with it. During this period, thanks to a surge in the activities of enthusiasts, under the guidance and with the help of the museum staff, many different museums were opened in the city and around the region. In 1978, by decision of the regional executive committee, the local history museum became a museum association.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore moves to 46 Malysheva Street in 1987. Today this is the main premises, although the institution's branches are located at several addresses.
Modern Museum
Over the past years, new museums have been created on the basis of the association. Some began to live an independent life, some remained branches of the parent institution. But everywhere the basis is the conduct of cultural and educational work, the study and scientific justification of events.
Today the museum stores more than 700 thousand exhibits, receives 270 thousand visitorsper year, organizes 130 exhibitions in museum buildings and 125 traveling exhibitions. That's the statistics. But behind it is the work of a huge team of museum workers of various profiles. Without their dedication, none of this would have been possible. As visitors say in their reviews, the museum has a truly incredible atmosphere.
Museum Collections
The modern local history museum of the Sverdlovsk region owns various valuable collections. But among them there are the most remarkable and interesting.
The collection of glass and ceramics is one of the first. It began to be created even before the opening of the museum by the members of the Wole. The first items appeared in the fund after the closing of the Siberian-Ural scientific and industrial exhibition. Now it is richly represented by various types of ceramic production, most of it is Russian porcelain.
The Egyptian collection contains artifacts from the culture of Ancient Egypt. The foundation was laid by the donor Konyukhov, replenishment took place in the 20-40s of the last century.
The collection of paintings is presented in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore mainly by the works of local masters. There are collections of posters, graphics, even drawings of the Ural factories.
Archaeological finds form a large section. They came to the museum in different years, thanks to the excavations that were carried out in the region during the existence of the museum. But the first exhibit brought by a student to his teacher O. E. Kleru, the stone axe, occupies a special place.
Numismatists have something to see in the Sverdlovsk Regionallocal history museum. Feedback on the collection is extremely positive. Here are collected coins and paper banknotes of different times and peoples. In addition, badges, orders and medals, securities are presented.
This is not a complete list of the museum's collections. Each item from the fund is priceless. But there are unique exhibits that should be discussed separately.
Big Shigir idol
In the 19th century, during the development of a gold mine in the Shigir peat bog (Sverdlovsk region), various ancient objects were discovered, including a wooden idol. Together with other finds, it was transferred to the Yekaterinburg Museum. Even then, this collection, which continued to grow over time, became a sensation.
The idol was found at a depth of four meters. The tree was destroyed, and it was taken out in pieces. After the reconstruction, a figure 5.3 meters high was obtained. It is not known at what time the lower part of the idol was lost, and now the height of the figure, exhibited in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, is 3.4 meters.
After conducting modern analyzes of wood and radiocarbon examination, experts say that its age is 9.5 thousand years. That is, our idol is much older than the Egyptian pyramids. This sensation is recognized by the world community.
Mammoth and broadhorn deer skeletons
The skeletons of a mammoth and a giant deer take center stage in the museum's collection of animals from bygone eras. These two exhibits were purchased indifferent years from local residents of Kamyshlov uyezd. The giant deer skeleton came to the museum in 1886. Mammoth purchased after 10 years. They both before and now attract great attention of visitors to the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. Photos of the remains of these animals adorn booklets and postcards.
V. N. Tatishchev's library
Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev is a statesman, historian, geographer and economist. In 1737, having received a new appointment and leaving Yekaterinburg, he left his personal library to the city. Years later, employees of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore discovered part of the collection. The most valuable book was printed in 1516.
Today anyone can visit this amazing place. Tickets to the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore are sold at the museum box office.
Opening hours and suggested excursions
You can visit the local history museum from 8.00 to 17.00 daily. There is a system of preferential visits, which provides the opportunity for some categories of citizens to see historical exhibits for free - this applies to veterans, the disabled, people with disabilities.
Visitors are offered interesting excursions. Together with a guide, you can explore such thematic areas as the nature of the Sverdlovsk Territory, the history of its formation. The organizers are given the opportunity to consider the features of the formation of the views of the local inhabitants in the pre-war period, their life directly during the Patriotic War, as well as learn the details of the post-war restoration- each of these periods has its own theme, and for each theme, the museum conducts fascinating excursions.
