Description of the attraction
The Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore is one of the oldest museums in Russia, it was created in December 1782. The initiator of its foundation was the Irkutsk Governor F. Klitschka. It was he who called on the city fathers to allocate funds for the construction of the museum and the first book depository.
The heyday of the Irkutsk Museum of Local Lore came in 1854, when it became a center for the study of Siberia, a scientific repository and an educational institution, which was facilitated by the opening of the Siberian Department of the Russian Geographical Society in 1851, to which the museum was transferred. As a result of a large fire that occurred in 1879 in Irkutsk, most of the city was damaged, including the building of the museum itself, where 22 thousand exhibits were kept, as well as a library with 10 thousand books. In October 1883, a new stone museum building was built. In 1920, the Irkutsk VSORGO Museum was nationalized and transferred to the state.
Today, the museum's funds include more than 450 thousand exhibits reflecting the society and nature of Eastern Siberia and adjacent territories. At present, the local history museum is represented by six exposition and exhibition departments: the Department of History, the Department of Nature, the Museum Studio, the Department "Window to Asia", the Scientific Fund Department and the Department of the Book Fund.
The history department is located in the former building of the VSORGO museum, erected in 1883 in the Moorish style according to the project drawn up by the engineer-architect Baron G. Rosen. The Department of Nature is housed in a beautiful spacious two-storey building, which is a city architectural monument. The building was built in 1903 in the eclectic style. Before the 1917 revolution, the building belonged to the Siberian publisher and educator P. Makushin. The Museum Studio is a new exhibition space for the local history museum. Its opening took place in October 2005. One of the main tasks of the studio is to show the collections of the Irkutsk Museum of Local Lore.
Window to Asia is located in a recreated historic city block. The exhibition is dedicated to the contribution of Irkutsk, researchers of Siberia and the Far East to the study, development and annexation of North-East Asia to Russia. The Scientific Fund Department was founded in 2008. Its main tasks are to provide information support to the activities of the local history museum in the media, to form and promote its positive image. The Department of the Book Fund has more than 90 thousand copies, including books, newspapers and magazines. The library was founded at the same time as the museum in 1782.
