Mineralogical Museum. A. Fersman is one of the most interesting natural science museums in Russia. Its history spans more than 300 years, and it has no equal in our country in terms of the vastness of its collections. The museum's collection includes about 140,000 specimens representing all known types of minerals from all parts of the world. Total in the museum 20 thematic expositions, grouped by sections, for example: "Systematics of Species", "Mineral Forming Processes", "The Most Common Minerals", "Colors of Minerals", "Minerals Discovered in Russia", "Precious and Ornamental Stones", "Crystals" and so on.
How it all started
We owe the appearance of this museum to Emperor Peter I. In 1716, he acquired a collection of more than a thousand minerals in Europe, laying the foundation for the first Russian museum. This museum was then called the Mineral Cabinet of the Kunstkamera and was located in St. Petersburg. A few years later, he issued an order to equip a mineralogical expedition to Siberia to "search for stone and all kinds of ore." After the founding of the Academy of Sciences, the collection was transferred to its jurisdiction, thus becoming the basis for scientific work and study of the richest mineral deposits in Russia for many generations of Russian scientists.
In formation museum collections major Russian scientists: , P. Pallas, I. Gregory, S. Krasheninnikov, V. Vernadsky, A. Fersman and others. It was decided to transport the collection to Moscow, which had been repeatedly supplemented over two centuries, in 1934, when Moscow firmly established itself in the capital status returned to it by the Soviet authorities . The Mineralogical Museum was lucky - it was given the building that previously belonged to Count Alexei Orlov. In the former arena of the estate, comfortable and spacious, which is also a monument 19th architecture century, all conditions have been created for the treasures of mineralogy. Here everything is systematized, thought out and presented both for inquisitive visitors and for scientific specialists. The name of Academician Alexander Evgenievich Fersman, its first director and prominent mineralogist, has been borne by the museum since 1956.
The museum is located near the Moscow River, opposite the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. Next to the museum are the ancient Donskoy Monastery, the most beautiful complex of buildings of the Golitsyn hospital, created by the architect M. F. Kazakov in late XIX in and .
The scientific community called "Moscow Club of Friends of Mineralogy", opened in March 2002, holds regular meetings of amateurs and professionals at the museum. You can visit them any Friday. Everyone is welcome here!
Mineralogical Museum today. Exposure.
Today the Mineralogical Museum is a large scientific institution within the Russian Academy of Sciences. It's hard to believe, but the huge area of the museum allows you to present only 1/12 of the collection! More than fifty showcases contain thousands of various minerals, rock samples, geodes, intergrowths, druze, etc. Many of them have not been processed, while others, on the contrary, have been carefully polished. In addition, the museum can rightly be proud of the collection of works of old and modern stone cutters, as well as a collection of precious stones. Many exhibits can be viewed in all details - they are equipped with special magnifying lenses.
special value the collection is complemented by objects from the collection of famous jewelers, as well as an incredibly rich collection of meteorites. Great collection of gems and jewelry different countries and epochs. Of course, the entire collection of the museum cannot be described in a few words. We will only talk about some of the most striking and famous exhibits.
Perhaps, only in the Mineralogical Museum you will see more than 4800 samples of crystals representing 7 syngonies (crystal systems); there are also more than 2000 samples representing various ways growth, change and replacement of minerals with each other.
Among the many showcases, there are free-standing splices and geodes of minerals. Very beautiful, for example, amethyst geodes from Brazil, fused with a tee, or magnificent quartz crystals.
Many of the stones presented in the museum have their own special history. So, for example, here you can see a purely Russian stone - charoite - which is not mined anywhere except in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Siberian river Chara; alexandrite, named after Emperor Alexander II, who was killed in 1881; a written set of Badakhshan lapis lazuli - the legendary Afghan stone - presented to the leader Soviet Union N. Khrushchev Zahir Shah, and much more.
The famous Faberge collection includes. including the last (and unfinished) product of the company - an Easter egg made of crystal "Tsesarevich Alexei". In total, this company donated more than 300 precious and ornamental stones to the museum.
Among other things, the museum stores stationery sets made of precious stones, sculptures, carved figurines and brooches, paperweights, vases, etc. All this is done in different time of the most beautiful minerals on the planet.
In the center of the museum hall you will see a colossal vase made of malachite, and from the explanations to it you will learn how the extraction of this unique stone in the Urals began. Its natural forms can be seen in the display cases of the museum. In particular, here is one of the first samples of Ural malachite, which entered the museum as early as 1795. The riches of the Urals, which have not dried up so far, are illustrated by the famous "Gorka". This is a separate sculpture made of precious and semi-precious stones, mounted on malachite, a creation of Siberian jewelers.
Another mineral that immediately attracts attention is pyrite. On his example, one can illustrate the well-known Russian proverb: "Not all that glitters is gold." Pyrite - a compound of sulfur and iron - is called "fool's gold": it glitters from afar and really looks like a noble metal.
Emerald (smaragd) - a symbol of wisdom - was also highly valued in Russia. In the Middle Ages, it was believed that this stone is a powerful talisman that saves from poison and snake bites. According to legend, it was from the emerald that the famous Grail and the tablets of the god Thoth were carved. In Russia, they believed that it gives its owner wisdom and composure. In the museum you can see the most valuable Russian stones - emeralds from the Ural deposit "Emerald Mines", discovered in the 18th century.
The Mineralogical Museum of MGRI-RGGRU is one of the largest mineralogical collections in Moscow. His collections began to form "from scratch" immediately after the Moscow Geological Prospecting Institute (now - MGRI-RGGRU named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze) moved to a new building in the south-west of the capital in 1989on the basis of the Department of Mineralogy and Geochemistry.
E It is one of the few intra-university museums of the city of Moscow with a natural science theme, which publicly presents a variety of thematic collections of samples of minerals, rocks and ores for educational, scientific and educational activities.
The Mineralogical Museum develops the concept of combining educational, methodological and scientific work in the teaching and student environment, as well as among schoolchildren and students of all levels.
Main characteristics:
The total exposition area is 600 m 2 .
The number of exhibited samples is 4000.
The number of samples in storerooms is 5000.
The museum has permanent and changing exhibitions. The permanent exposition of the museum includes such sections as "History of mineralogical research", "Symmetry around us", "Minerals of different syngonies", "Systematic mineralogy", "Coloring of minerals", "Individuals and aggregates", "Regional (world) mineralogy", " Biomineralogy”, “Processes of mineral formation” and many others.
The museum gallery constantly hosts thematic exhibitions related to the activities of both the museum and the University.
The museum is the initiator of many educational, educational and scientific programs. Museum staff come up with and successfully implement new interesting projects: "Meetings of Friends of the Museum", "Night at the Mineralogical Museum".
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| Museum exhibits: Charoite |
The main directions of educational and methodical and scientific activity Mineralogical Museum:
Central Federal District
Russian State Geological Exploration University
Address: 117995, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya street, 23
Head of the Mineralogical Museum: Associate Professor Dolzhanskaya Tatyana Yurievna
There are several world famous mineralogical museums in Russia. One of the largest is the Mineralogical Museum. Fersman, located in Moscow in one of the buildings included in the architectural ensemble of the Neskuchny Sad estate. There is a museum with the same name in Sverdlovsk region in the village of Murzinka, located on the Neiva River.
History of the Moscow Museum
The Mineral Museum has a rich and varied history. Its founder is Peter I, the first collection was presented in the mineral cabinet of the Kunstkamera, which opened in St. Petersburg in 1716.
The first mineralogical collection was represented by exhibits collected in the Urals, Altai and other mining sites. In addition, Peter I ordered to purchase a large collection minerals in Germany.
The collection was constantly replenished, and by 1725 the cabinet of the Kunstkamera had become a branch of the newly founded Academy of Sciences. The systematization and description of the collections was handled by M. V. Lomonosov. They were also asked to create a special catalog of stones, which would indicate the deposits of their production.
Throughout the 18th century, the collections were constantly replenished with samples obtained in large geological expeditions conducted in Transbaikalia, in the Ural and Altai mountains, in northern deposits, etc.
In the 19th century, the museum becomes a geological one, as at that time there was a rapid development of industry. Mineralogy is represented in the museum by the only exposition. Since 1912, the mineralogical department has experienced a rebirth. Academician A.M. Fersman, who at that time served as the curator of the collection, contributed in many respects to this.
After the revolution, Academician Fersman became the director of the museum. The scientist initiates new expeditions to different regions of the country, which allowed to significantly replenish the collection.
In 1934, the museum was transferred to Moscow, and the building of the arena, built for Count Orlov-Chesmensky at the beginning of the 20th century, was allocated to house the collections. And in 1956 the museum was named after its illustrious director, academician Fersman.
Collections
At present, the Moscow Museum of Mineralogy. Fersman has five main collections.
- The collection is systematic. It presents more than 90 thousand different exhibits. Of the 4,000 types of minerals known in nature, the collection contains 2,600 specimens. The collection of minerals is systematized according to the composition, origin and properties of the samples.
- Collection of crystals. This collection contains more than 4800 exhibits - a variety of crystals. The crystals selected for the museum collection are well formed and represent all forms of natural organic matter. In the same collection there is a subsection of artificially grown crystals.
- Collection of deposits. The richest collection, which includes more than 31 thousand samples. It presents minerals from hundreds of Russian deposits and from some of the most famous foreign geological developments.
- Collection of transformations of minerals. A curious collection that presents patterns of change, growth and replacement of minerals.
- Collection of ornamental, semi-precious and precious stones. This collection usually calls big interest at the visitors. It presents both rough samples and faceted stones, as well as, finished goods. The richest part of the collection is chalcedony products. In addition, exhibits made of jasper, malachite, lapis lazuli, rhodonite, and jade are presented in large numbers. Of the transparent stones, most of all products are made of quartz and varieties of beryl (aquamarine, emerald). Exhibits from garnet, tourmaline, topaz, precious varieties of corundum, zircons are presented.
One of the most famous exhibits is a 75 cm high malachite vase. The vase has a cast-iron base, pasted over with malachite plates, selected according to the pattern and color so that no joints are visible.
Museum work
At present, the Museum of Mineralogy in Moscow is the center of scientific work. The museum has detailed card catalogs and a polishing library. The collections are regularly replenished with new samples obtained during expeditions and presented as a gift.
Structurally, the collection of exhibits is divided into several thematic halls. For example, there is a hall dedicated to minerals discovered in Russian deposits and named after the discoverers. On the basis of the museum, there is a permanent Club where lovers of minerals meet and communicate.
Visitors are offered various excursion programs, for example:
- Sightseeing tour and acquaintance with the main exposition;
- Excursion dedicated to various mineral-forming processes;
- Inspection of the most interesting natural minerals;
- Inspection of the collection of ornamental, semi-precious and precious stones and products from them.
Visitors are allowed to take photos with their own cameras at no extra charge.
How to find?
The museum building is located at the entrance to the Neskuchny Garden, the exact address is: Moscow, Leninsky Prospekt, house 18, building 2.
Guests of the capital are often interested in the question of how to get to the museum? There are several options:
- by metro to Shabolovka station and then on foot;
- by metro to the station Leninsky Prospekt or Oktyabrskaya Koltsevaya, then you should transfer to a bus or trolleybus of any route and get to the stop "Hospital of St. Alexei", then walk.
The museum is open to visitors from 11 to 17 from Wednesday to Sunday, on Monday and Tuesday - a day off.
Museum in the Sverdlovsk region
In the village of Murzinka there is a geological museum named after A. Fersman. The museum was founded in 1958 at a local school. But since the exposition of the museum grew very quickly, the local authorities decided to allocate a separate building for the exposition. In 1964, the museum moved to the building of the Sretenskaya Church, which is historical monument beginning of the 18th century. In 1983 the museum in Murzinka became integral part Museum-reserve "Gornozavodskoy Ural" (Nizhny Tagil).
The first floor of the museum presents a historical exposition. The village of Murzinka was founded in 1639 as a settlement of mining workers who worked in the extraction of precious stones.
On the second floor there is a collection of minerals. Visitors can see amethysts, aquamarines, topazes, morions mined in local deposits, and some types of valuable minerals brought from other regions of the country.
The museum in Murzinka is visited not only by local residents, but also by guests, including those from abroad. The museum is open from Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 17:30, on Sunday from 10:00 to 16:30.
The Mineralogical Museum named after the outstanding scientist, mineralogist and geochemist A.E. Fersman. Today the collection of this museum, which has even more ancient history than the Russian Academy of Sciences itself, has over 140 thousand samples.
Its basis was the collection (or, as it was then officially called the Museum, Museum) of Dr. K. Gottwald, bought in 1714 at an auction in Danzing on behalf of Peter I to create a museum of rarities - the Kunstkamera. On the basis of this collection, in 1716, the so-called Mineral Cabinet was created - in fact, the first public mineralogical museum in Russia, designed to educate the widest sections of the population.
The basis of the Mineral Cabinet, created at the beginning of the XVIII century. under the Kunstkamera of Peter I, there were mineralogical “curiosities” from the Gottwald collection, which, although considered large at that time, consisted of only 1195 samples (Novgorodova, 2011).
To replenish the collections, Peter I issued a special decree that “if someone finds some old things in the ground and in the water, namely: unusual stones, human or animal bones, fish or bird ... what old inscriptions on stones, iron or copper, or some old, unusual gun, dishes and everything else, everything that is very old and unusual - they would bring it, for which there will be a happy dacha ... ".
And since the matter was new and unusual, to attract the public, tables were set in the office, treated to pies and even cups were offered ...
This sample of the mineral limonite (after pyrite) with a diameter of 3.5 cm, with the original label, was described by M.V. Lomonosov in the Catalog of the Mineral Cabinet. . MMF N° 197 OP. From the collection of I.F. Henkel (No. 58, 1743).
"Means for the improvement of arts and sciences ..."
The creation of the Mineral Cabinet only partly met the main tasks of the Kunstkameras that existed at that time at the courts of European monarchs: to surprise, delight visitors and show the wealth and power of the owner of the collection. In "Essays on the history of natural science in Russia in XVIII century V. I. Vernadsky wrote: “Peter the Great did not accumulate treasures. He set himself completely different, educational goals. Acquiring anatomical, zoological, mineralogical and other rarities, “natural and art created”, he hoped to use them to acquire “a systematic concept in natural history”, and also wanted them to serve, according to Leibniz, “means for improving arts and Sciences"".
After establishment Imperial Academy sciences in 1725. The Kunstkamera, together with the Mineral Cabinet, immediately passed into its department. A lot of work had to be done to describe and study the accumulated material, but at that time there were no native, "homegrown" scientists in Russia.
One of the first of the enlightened to come to Russia, own initiative, Johann Georg Gmelin, a physician by education, in his scientific interests- chemist and botanist, and later ethnographer. Gmelin began work on compiling the first catalog of the Kunstkamera, but worked on it only until 1733. The next to join this work was Johann Ammann, another German natural scientist, professor of botany and natural history, who studied for the most part analysis of collections of flora and fauna. Therefore, as soon as M. V. Lomonosov returned from Germany, having studied there at the Freiberg Mining Academy, the Academy of Sciences immediately instructed him to take up the analysis of the collections of the Mineral Cabinet. The result of his work was the Catalog, published in 1745 in Latin - one of the first printed editions Russian Academy Sciences.
This Catalog has been preserved, both in the original in Latin and in a Russian translation edited by Lomonosov himself. In the fifth volume complete collection works of M. V. Lomonosov (1955) there is this translation, supplied with illustrations. Among them is an image of one of the samples of limonite (pseudomorphosis after pyrite), described by Lomonosov and currently on display at the museum, as well as a heavy magnet in a metal frame, made from natural Nizhny Tagil magnetite, which was used by Lomonosov to determine the magnetic properties of minerals. And quite recently, the Florentine mosaics kept in the museum funds were attributed as recorded in the Catalog personally by Lomonosov (Novgorodova, 2011).
This work so fascinated the first Russian academician that he continued his research in the field of geology, the result of which was such works as “The word about the birth of metals from the shaking of the earth ...” (1757) and “The first foundations of metallurgy or ore affairs. About the layers of the earth "(1763). Lomonosov also contributed to the replenishment of the museum collection: now the museum displays a sample of silver sulfide from Freiberg, which was transferred by Lomonosov to the collection of the Mineral Cabinet.
A sample of native silver - a gift to Peter I from the Danish king. Konsberg, . 1697-1698 Length 16 cm. MMF No. PDK-592.
Unfortunately, almost immediately after the release of the Catalog, the Kunstkamera big fire, and almost the entire collection perished. Little has been preserved: native metals, a collection of amber, some stone products, including the mosaics described in the Catalogue. Of the surviving exhibits of that time at the museum historical exhibition, you can see gifts to Peter I: native silver from Norway, as well as gloves and a pouch made of a fine-fibered variety of serpentine (asbestos) - a gift from the Demidov family of Ural mining workers.
At the end of the XVIII century. At the invitation of Catherine the Great, a young German scientist Peter Simon Pallas came to Russia, who, according to her plan, was to organize natural-scientific expeditions to study the natural resources of Siberia and other remote regions of the empire. Pallas headed both the main scientific institution of the state - the Kunstkamera, and its Mineral Cabinet. The fees of the expeditions organized by him significantly replenished the museum's funds, and the collection of the Mineral Cabinet again became in line with the largest foreign museum mineralogical collections. In particular, the museum owes Pallas the receipt of the first extraterrestrial sample - a large block of iron-stone meteorite, named in his honor Pallas's iron.
From the Mineral Cabinet to the Mineralogical Museum
Scientific activity and work on the systematization of collections in the museum intensified at the end of the 18th century, when Vasily Mikhailovich Severgin came to the Mineral Cabinet (and later became its leader). He was the first to publish in Russian such works on mineralogy as "Initial Foundations natural history. The kingdom of fossils "(1791)," The first foundations of mineralogy or the natural history of fossil bodies "(1798), the first determinant of minerals according to outward signs (« New system Minerals...” (1816) and others. He also published the first Russian-language guide to the collections of the Mineral Cabinet (Belyaev, 1793).
Scientific, as well as educational activities of the Geological Museum. Peter the Great Imperial Academy of Sciences - this is how the museum was officially called for several years, at that time already separated from the Kunstkamera, it grew especially in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, with the arrival of academician V.I. Vernadsky and his student and colleague A. E. Fersman.
On their initiative, scientific and analytical laboratories for chemical, X-ray, spectral, equipped with the best equipment at that time, were created in the museum. The level of research conducted there is evidenced by the fact that already in the 1930s, after the museum and other institutions of the Academy of Sciences moved to Moscow, on the basis of these museum laboratories scientific research institutes that still exist today were founded: the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Geochemistry and Mineralogy, the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry. V. I. Vernadsky and the Geological Institute.
Museum puzzles
The museum traditions founded by V. I. Vernadsky and A. E. Fersman are preserved and developed, and today, as before, one of the most important museum areas is educational activities.
The "Mineralogical Circle" and the educational club "Friends of Mineralogy", which unites amateurs and collectors, continue to work in the museum. The museum journal New Data on Minerals is published annually.
new direction museum activities became educational activities among youth and students, held jointly with the Moscow state university. Since 2007, the museum has been participating in the annual Science Festivals (first in Moscow, and now all-Russian). In 2010, within the framework of the festival, the educational program "Museum puzzles" was tested and then introduced into museum practice.
Together with the International Council of Museums at UNESCO, two innovative game-based research guides to museum expositions have been developed - Fersman's Rebus and Fersman's Rainbow. Travel guides allow young and middle children school age to independently explore individual exhibits of the museum.
Museum staff also help Moscow State University and the Moscow Department of Education in holding open geological and museum Olympiads among schoolchildren. And all this is not counting the sightseeing and thematic tours of the museum, of which more than 500 are held per year.
In 2011, a scientific and educational center was created on the basis of the museum together with the Department of Mineralogy of the Geological Faculty of Moscow State University. A special course of lectures and practical exercises has been developed for the training of undergraduate students, which is conducted by the museum staff. And for 3rd year students and bachelors, the museum organizes summer training and production practice and selects material for the preparation of term papers and theses, which are also headed by museum staff. The results of their research are often published by students and graduate students of the Mineralogy Department in a museum journal.
In 2014, another initiative was launched - the People's Mineralogical University, in which leading scientists from the museum, Moscow State University and institutes of the geological profile give popular science lectures for adults interested in minerals and earth sciences.
The museum also organized mole expeditions, which not only contributed to the replenishment of museum collections, but also led to the discovery of a number of locations of industrially important ores, in particular, the world's largest Khibiny apatite deposit.
Under Vernadsky, a scientific seminar began to meet regularly in the museum to discuss scientific and museum problems, which he called the “Mineralogical Circle”. Leading experts in the field of geosciences made presentations at the seminar, which was very popular. At several meetings devoted to the discovery and industrial significance of apatite ores, their discoverer, a museum employee, A. N. Labuntsov, made presentations. Vernadsky himself, Fersman and other well-known mineralogists also repeatedly spoke at them.
Thanks to Vernadsky, in 1907 the museum founded its own periodical, which until 1916 was published under the title “Proceedings of the Geological Museum mm. Peter the Great" several times a year. But these first editions were small in size and often included only one work on a particular subject. Since 1926, in connection with the separation of the Geological Department from the Mineralogical Museum, the Proceedings of the Mineralogical Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences began to appear, one volume annually. Academician A.E. Fersman, director of the Mineralogical Museum, became the editor of the publication.
The role of Fersman as a popularizer of science is truly difficult to overestimate. big love most different ages and professions, his popular science books were used: "Entertaining mineralogy", "Entertaining geochemistry", "Journey behind a stone", "Memories of a stone", and photographs or sketches of museum exhibits often served as illustrations for these publications. These books by Fersman became a bibliographic rarity, although at one time they withstood a large number of editions and have been translated into various languages. Many geologists, mineralogists, geochemists born in the 1930s and 1960s chose their profession under the influence of popular books Fersman. He was also a great storyteller: his scientific and educational lectures always attracted a large number of listeners, especially young people.
The baton of enlightenment was taken over by the new directors and employees of the museum: G. P. Barsanov, A. A. Godovikov, M. I. Novgorodova, M. D. Dorfman, V. I. Stepanov and others.
Stones with history
What can be seen today in the Mineralogical Museum? First of all, this is a hall with high ceilings and paintings, ancient crystal chandeliers, gilding and caryatids at the entrance - the former horse arena of Count A. Orlov-Chesmensky, built at the very beginning of the 19th century. and then owned royal family. But, of course, the main thing is minerals, amazing, bewitching, not similar friend on the other works of inanimate nature.
Mineralogical Museum. A.E. Fersman today has a large collection of ornamental and precious stones, in which, in addition to faceted stones, there are also unique stone-cut products of great artistic value and rarely found in such quantities in natural science collections. Among them there are products of all the tracks of the Russian Imperial Lapidary Factories, the Faberge firm, works of famous Italian stone cutters, etc. Unfortunately, these exhibits, handed over to the museum in the post-revolutionary 1920s, were overwhelmingly not accompanied by information about their history. The study of this collection, begun in recent years, made it possible to establish such important details for some exhibits as the place of manufacture, the name of the master and the author of the project, the name of the previous owner, etc. There are already about a hundred such "identified" exhibits, and some of them deserve special attention.
a - aquamarine with topaz. Sherl Mountain. Vost. Transbaikalia, Russia. 14.5x8.0 cm. MMF N° 14538; b - topaz (with quartz, albite). Murzinka, Ural, Russia. Sample 4x2.5 cm. MMF No. 10721; c - gypsum. Broken crystal. Beth, Derbyshire, . Sample 8.0x4.5 cm. MMF N° 8978.
For example, these are products made at different times at the Imperial Peterhof Lapidary Factory. The earliest of them, still simple in form, which date back to the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, are quartzite bowls. It turned out that after being made, they ended up in the Nesvizh Castle, in the treasury of the Polish magnate Radziwill, who fought in Napoleon's troops against Russia. After the defeat of the French, his property was confiscated in 1813 and sent to St. Petersburg (now it is kept in the Hermitage). In 1926, several bowls from this collection were transferred to the Mineralogical Museum.
g - hematite. Pseudomorphosis after a skeletal crystal of magnetite. Patagonia, . Diameter 9 cm. MMF No. 91600; d - scolecite. Pune, . Sample 13x10 cm. MMF. No. 87806.
Of the small plastic items created at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the museum has an agate vase in the Japanese style, marked in the inventory book as a product of the Yekaterinburg factory. But it turned out that this was a product of the Peterhof factory: “a vase with dolphins made of solid flint agate with the preservation of the shape due to a piece of the stone itself. The base of the vase looks like a dragon depicted on an ancient Japanese vase... The vase cost 1,360 rubles. The finished product, by its nature, was made by the factory for the first time” (Mavrodina, 2007). The unique vase was presented to the Imperial Court on February 26, 1889, on the Emperor's birthday. Alexander III(Chistyakova, 2011).
e - agate. Polished cut. Ridge Arts-Bogdo, Gobi, . Sample 13.0x5.5 cm. MMF No. 84476; g - pyrite. Discospherolite. Sparta, Illinois, . Diameter 8 cm. MMF No. 38726; h - pyrite on calcite crystals. Sarbaiskoye deposit, . Sample 8.5x5.5 cm. MMF No. 89042.
The museum also exhibits another masterpiece of stone-cutting (mosaic) art of the Peterhof Lapidary Factory, a closet-study created for the imperial chambers. When studying it, it was established that it was made from the tropical tree amboina by the carpenter A.V. Shutov, the pattern for the mosaic panels was borrowed from the Parisian furniture manufacturer A. Dasson, and the magnificent bronze decorations were made by the master of gold and bronze crafts A.Ya . Sokolov. The legend that existed in the museum was also confirmed that in 1919 this cabinet-cabinet, together with two close “copies”, was among the valuables intended for sale abroad. The Americans were ready to exchange each of these cabinets for 25 locomotives, but V. I. Lenin forbade this deal. Such information about the exhibits gives them additional historical value(Mavrodina, 2007; Chistyakova, 2011).
It was also possible to find out the authorship of an excellent black marble mosaic table top, into which, according to the Florentine mosaic method, bouquets and garlands of flowers from various colored minerals are embedded. In the center of the picture is a bunch of grapes, amazing in expressiveness, the berries of which seem to be convex thanks to the silver foil placed under the hemispheres of amethyst. On reverse side the tabletop is scratched with a half-erased inscription "1851 Propsezko Vs11 ...". Information about the master mosaicist with similar data for a long time could not be found in the specialized literature, and only an appeal to Italian colleagues from the Orpheus Mosaic Museum in Florence (to "Ie RheAge Oige) made it possible to establish that he was, apparently, Francesco Belloni (1772 1853). This master worked first in the papal mosaic workshop in Rome, and late XVIII in, - in Paris, at the French imperial court.
Surprising results were brought by the study of the products of the company Carl Faberge. In the 1920s Academician Fersman, director of the Mineralogical Museum, and A. K. Faberge, the son of the founder of the company, worked together in the commission for the description of royal jewels. Probably, it was then that a part of the stone-cutting objects of the company was selected for the museum. Among these items are a soldier of the First World War, an ice carrier, various animals (owl, mouse, geese, elephant and baby elephant, snail), various small functional items, etc. One of the items, consisting of two fragments of a blue glass egg stained with cobalt salts and a stand in the form of a cloud of rock crystal, was not finished and was stored disassembled.
By stamps it was possible to establish the masters who made some of the exhibits. For example, a silver ice carrier was created by metal master J. Armfelt; and the product in the Japanese style, which is a pine tree entwined with a liana, is a rare work of F. Afanasyev. But real sensation became information about one of the last two imperial Faberge Easter eggs stored in the Mineralogical Museum, which the company was supposed to make in 1917.
As you know, since 1885, Alexander 111 annually ordered precious Easter eggs for the Empress Maria Feodorovna from Faberge. After the death of his father, this tradition was continued by Nicholas II, who presented such gifts to both his mother and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. But in 1917, these two eggs did not have time to finish. Nicholas II abdicated the throne, and no information about the fate of the imperial Easter gifts has been preserved. And only in 2002 was compared with the surviving sketch that same unfinished product, transferred to the A. Faberge Museum. At the discussion of the Restoration Council on applied arts museum-reserve "Moscow Kremlin", the authenticity of this exhibit was confirmed as unfinished easter egg firm Faberge, called "Tsesarevich Alexei".
The location of the constellations on the upper hemisphere corresponds to the position of the celestial bodies on August 12, 1904, the date of birth of the Tsarevich. The Tsarevich was born under the sign of Leo, and it was in this constellation that the largest diamond should have been located on the upper sphere (Chistyakova, 2004; Generalov, 2006). In the restoration workshops of the Kremlin, the egg was finally assembled into a single object, although it was left without diamonds. A white synthetic material was used to articulate the two hemispheres so that the insert differs from the original elements and is noticeable.
In museum expositions
To date, in museum expositions no more than a tenth of all 140 thousand samples stored here are presented, but it is not even possible to simply list all the unique exhibits. Of the 5 thousand mineral species known today, only about 3.5 thousand are represented at the systematic exposition, and a significant part of them are specimens of outstanding quality.
Rhodonite. Druse of flattened bright pink crystals up to 2 cm in size with quartz and thin colorless needle-like crystals of cummingtonite. Gift of D. I. Belakovsky. Conselheiro Lafaiete, Minas Gerais. Sample 10cm. MMF No. 93322.
All museum exhibitions are thematic, for example, "Variety of mineral species", "Ornamental and precious stones", "Meteorites", etc. The exhibition "Types of Mineral Associations in the Earth's Crust" tells about the distribution in the Earth's crust of minerals formed during various geological processes, ranging from minerals crystallized from magmatic melts at great depths at high temperatures to "low-temperature" minerals formed on the Earth's surface during the weathering of rocks and ores or in salt basins. And at the exhibition "Mineralogy of Chemical Elements" there are rows of minerals in which this or that chemical element during various mineral-forming processes.
Exhibitions are updated and supplemented with new arrivals. Constantly modernized expositions include, for example, the exhibition "Systematics of Minerals". Many outstanding scientists and museum leaders, from Lomonosov to Fersman, devoted their works to this problem. Modern exposition built on the ideas of Professor A. A. Godovikov on the relationship between the chemical composition of minerals and their structure and properties (Godovikov, 1997). Museum funds are replenished annually by about 500 new specimens, and in recent years special attention is given not only to the scientific, but also to the aesthetic value of objects.
The museum has something to tell and show, in addition to the richest collections and magnificent exhibitions: the research laboratory of the museum is equipped with modern equipment, and its employees only for last decade discovered and studied over twenty new mineral species. The remarkable fact that more than thirty minerals and their varieties have been named in their honor, including lomonosovite and betalomonosovite, vernadite and vernadskyite, fersmith and fersmanite, severginite, labuntsovite, kryzhanovskite, georgbarsaiovite, orlovite, testifies to the significant scientific contribution to the development of mineralogy by the museum staff. , godikovite, wistepite, nov-gorodovite, pautovite, etc.
IN modern Russia Mineralogical Museum. A.E. Fersman RAS, along with other scientific, educational and educational institutions, is part of the most important system of intellectual and aesthetic development people and society as a whole.
In fact, it is the same national treasure as the Hermitage, Grand Theatre, Tretyakov Gallery and other pearls of Russia. Such museums must be protected and supported in every possible way so as not to lose their unique collections and preserve them for future generations.
The history of the modern Mineralogical Museum began in 1716 in St. Petersburg. At first it was just a mineral room of the famous Kunstkamera. Then it was reassigned to the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with which in 1934 the mineral cabinet moved to Moscow, on Leninsky Prospekt.
Fairy of a sunny day
The building of the Mineralogical Museum pleases with its appearance alone. In the past, this is the arena of Count Orlov, erected around 1807.
At the entrance, you can admire the wonderful stucco work, and wooden showcases with various exhibits are in perfect harmony with both the architecture of the house and the content.
The whole museum is one big hall. Minerals of all possible shapes and colors are presented.
Not only children, but also adults are delighted with amazing samples, of which there are about 135 thousand. They were brought from all over the world: a variety of minerals, natural crystals, precious stones, stone products of past and present masters, meteorites and much more.
There is even such a showcase - precious stones and, for comparison, fakes for them, which are often impossible to distinguish, since they are not inferior in beauty to real jewelry. And some fakes are even more spectacular than their natural counterparts.
A large salt pillar is very beautiful, near which some people have a desire to lick it (which, of course, cannot be done).
Team of employees mineralogical museum very professional and friendly, so the lectures are interesting. But the most amazing thing begins when the sun comes out. If it shines brightly, then the hall is transformed, as if it comes to life, sparkles in the sun's rays. This is what happens with snow on a fine day. And if clouds appear on the street, the museum showcases “go out” again.
Mysterious corner
Behind the columns of the large hall there is an unremarkable little nook, there is a whole closet of some, at first glance, ordinary gray cobblestones. In fact, this is a miracle showcase. As soon as the museum employee turns off the light, the minerals begin to glow in the most bizarre combinations. It turns out a fabulous, unforgettable spectacle. After turning on the light, the guide tells the shocked listeners about the reason for such an incredible behavior of minerals.
stone master
When you approach the works of stone makers, you get the feeling that you are in Bazhov's fairy tales. Immediately remembered stone Flower, a malachite box and it seems that the Mistress of the Copper Mountain herself is nearby and guards her treasures. Talented works of art from malachite and other stones are simply mesmerizing. IN Everyday life you won't see it. Such an unyielding and cold material, like a stone, becomes obedient in the hands of a real master and truly warms the soul. All this beauty is allowed to capture the camera.
aliens from outer space
At the Mineralogical Museum. Fersman is inhabited not only by minerals from the planet Earth, but also by space guests. They flew through the abyss of space for an incalculable number of light years and at the end of their journey ended up as an exhibit in Moscow. The number of such "guests" in the museum is quite decent. Each meteorite is signed, the date and place of its arrival in our world are indicated. Some of the meteorites are old-timers of the museum, but there are also newcomers, for example, three fragments of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that arrived on Earth in 2013.
The Mineralogical Museum in Moscow is one of the best in the world. Visitors leave rave reviews. And for those who have not been there yet, we advise you to choose a sunny day to visit the museum. After the tour, you can take a walk in the Neskuchny Garden, which is located nearby.
How to get there:
Details on the official website of the mineralogical museum http://www.fmm.ru.
