Cherepovets Museum Association
- Museum of history and local lore;
- Museum of arts;
- Memorial flat of the Vereshchagin family;
- Memorial estate of Ivan Milyutin;
- Museum of nature;
- Museum of archeology;
- Museum of history and ethnography "Manor of the Galskoys";
- Children's museum;
- Museum of literature (including the Memorial estate of Igor Severyanin in the settlement of Vladimirovka);
- Exhibition Hall.
The Cherepovets museum association is one of the oldest museums in Russia's North. The museum was founded by the city's mayor Ivan Milyutin (1829-1907) and a Cherepovets-born Elpidifor Barsov (1836-1917), the well known folklore scholar who donated his private collection to the city. Initially the museum included about 4,000 works of art. In its first decades the museum's collection was increased from different sources, including archeological, historical and ethnographic expeditions and private donations. Today the Cherepovets museum association houses 1/3 of the museum stock of Vologda Oblast (400,000 exhibits).
The Cherepovets museum association is a scientific, research, educational and recreational organization. It includes a great variety of collections: archeological, ethnographic, numismatic, historical, military, memorial, artistic, natural. Put together since the 1870s, the museum's collections of works of art present the development of culture and art from the Stone Age to the 20th century.
The association has the following expositional departments:
Some glimpses of the museum's history
For the first years of its existence the first exhibition of the museum occupied a small room of 15 sq m in a wooden house of the "Salt Town" situated in the city's public park. At present the museum is situated in more than ten buildings, including some national historical monuments.
Continuous expositions and mobile exhibitions are always on display. The museum association has a research library and an archive. There are a lot of interests' and hobby groups which are very popular among the visitors (e.g. a riding excursion, the tour of Pilgrim's Nicon way, etc.).
Squares:
total - 13036,06 sq m
show rooms - 5710 sq m
museum's store - 1542,8 sq m
After the October revolution the museum received many treasures following the closure of churches and monasteries in the region, as well as from the State Museum Fund, and the central museums of Moscow and Leningrad. Later the museum received the collection of art bronzes of Prince S.S. Abamelek-Lazarev consisting of lighting devices, candlesticks, decorative vases and clocks made by French and Russian masters of the 18th-19th centuries.
In 1928 valuable engravings and works of arts and crafts - porcelain, furniture, and bronzes belonging to a Cherepovets-born N. Chechulin, the well-known historian and correspondent member of the Academy of Sciences were transferred to the museum.
The collection of Russian painting (late 19th-early 20th century) was formed in the 1920-30s. The works of art were brought from the State Museum Fund and St. Petersburg's museums.
Folk art is another big part of the Cherepovets collection. The works of folk art have a unique style and artistry characteristic of the artisans of the Vologda and Cherepovets regions.
The Cherepovets museum association boasts a rich collection of books and manuscripts (early printed books and rare editions of the 15th-20th centuries). Many books of the 18th century have their owners' inscriptions and autographs. The museum also keeps books of the 18th-19th centuries that belonged to the Vereshchagin family, as well as editions of poems of the Russian poet Igor Severyanin.
The Cherepovets museum association is proud of its collection of relics of Russian orthodox culture. Many of them were exhibited in Japan, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and the Vatican.
The director of the Cherepovets museum Kornely Morozov made a tangible contribution to the formation and study of the museum collection.
Contact information
Postal address: 30 a, Sovetsky Prospect, Cherepovets, 162602, Russia
Phone/fax: (8202) 51-71-32
E-mail: cherepovets-museum@yandex.ru
Web site: http://chermuseum.ucoz.ru/