Architecture · Museums · Heritage · People

Viktor Kulakov, who saved the Griboyedov palace at Khmelita from ruin, has died

An empty desk in the director's study of the A.S. Griboyedov "Khmelita" State Historical, Cultural and Natural Museum-Reserve, at which Viktor Kulakov worked. Today Viktor Evgenyevich Kulakov passed away. He was a unique man who will remain in our memory and in the history

A massive wooden structure with curved beams on the grass, with a low picket fence and a rowan tree with red berries behind it.

NB! · Museums · Observations · Heritage

Wooden structure at the Vladimir and Suzdal Museum-Reserve

How enchanting Russia is! The Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve

Archaeology · Museums · Mores · Ethnography

Povoynik of the late 16th century from the Pokrovsky Monastery burial vault in Suzdal

Remember the expression "to okrutit' someone" (literally, to wind someone round, and so to ensnare them into marriage)? It is tied to the custom of winding a bride's hair around her head in a particular way: on her wedding day a Russian girl acquired the

Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Paris · Humour

Edward VII's chair for lovemaking and its counterpart in a Prague museum

Edward VII (1841-1910) had a special chair for amorous pursuits. Renowned for his unbridled appetites and colourful sexual adventures, the king preferred a particular contraption for comfortable lovemaking with two partners at once. A similar couch is on display at the Sex Machines Museum in Prague, together with a

Archaeology · Faith · Cinema · Books · Museums · Observations

The mountain of hands in the Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia, recalled the touching scene in «Call Me by Your Name» in which the heroes attend the raising of a statue from the bed of the Aegean Sea, and Oliver hands Elio a bronz

These hands, too, have been raised from the depths, though not of the sea but of a marsh. The pottery found in 1891 in the marsh of Santa Gilla dates from the 4th-3rd centuries BC. These are votive hands, that is, offered as gifts in fulfilment of a vow,

Museums · Science · People

Burning lens of Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus, the only instrument of his in Russia

In Russia there is only one instrument by the celebrated mathematician Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708): the burning lens from a device acquired by the Academy of Sciences in the early 1700s. Until 1947 the lens was kept in the museum of the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy

Archive · Museums · Science · Saint Petersburg

Formation of the Lomonosov Museum collection and the purchase of 254 items from 1946 to 1948

The Lomonosov Museum's collection was assembled with the help of other academic institutions, the Hermitage, the Russian and Historical Museums, and the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. In 1946-1948, 343,950 roubles were spent on acquisitions, and for this sum 254 items were bought, illustrating Lomonosov'

Archive · Museums · Science · Saint Petersburg

Academicians' round table passed from the Academy Library to the museum on Vavilov's order

All the scientific institutions of the Academy of Sciences were born in the Kunstkamera. And in its very centre, in the circular hall, stands what is perhaps the key exhibit: the round table at which the academicians sat in session. It came to the museum from the Manuscripts Department of

Museums · Observations · Science · Saint Petersburg

The Lomonosov Museum in the Kunstkamera, conceived by Vavilov in 1938 and created by 1949

My favourite part of the Kunstkamera is the Lomonosov Museum. The collection of objects connected with the life of the great scholar and with his age is housed in the tower in the central part of the building, which was restored to its historical appearance only in the 1940s, almost

Museums · Saint Petersburg · Ethnography

Yupik warrior's armour from Saint Lawrence Island, early 19th century, in the Kunstkamera

This stunning outfit is the attire of a Yupik warrior from Saint Lawrence Island, in the south of the Bering Strait. Early nineteenth century. The armour protecting the back is of sealskin; the parka, mittens, trousers and boots are of leather and reindeer fur. Below: a Yupik military breastplate of

Archaeology · London · Museums

Those eyes opposite!

- limestone - inlaid - with glass pupils - from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

Museums · Observations · Palaeontology · Paris · Nature

Hunting scenes with skeletons in the palaeontology hall of the Houston Museum of Natural Science

A human skeleton leaping onto the tip of a mammoth's tusk is not the only prank of the designers of the palaeontology hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science; there are other diverting scenes, for instance, a group of human skeletons driving a mammoth, or a mammoth