Description of the attraction
Altai State Museum of Local Lore is the oldest museum in Siberia. It is located in the historic center of Barnaul, in a building that is a historical and cultural monument of architecture of the mid-19th century. The museum building was erected in 1851 and was originally used as the Main Chemical Laboratory of the Altai District.
The Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1823 and is considered the successor of the Barnaul Mining Museum, founded in the same year for the 100th anniversary of mining in Altai. The founding of the Altai State Museum of Local Lore was initiated by P. K. Frolov and F. August von Gebler. Visitors to the museum were presented with exhibits collected from the beginning of the 18th century. These were ethnographic materials of North American and Siberian models of mining machines, as well as a herbarium and a mining library rich at that time.
By the first half of the 19th century, the museum became famous as a research institution, and therefore, it was closed for public access. By the end of the 19th century, the scientific value of the Museum of Local Lore had weakened. In 1913 Nicholas II issued a decree on the transfer of a new building on Polzunov Street to the museum. The reconstruction of the object was carried out by the architect N. I. Feodosievich.
At the end of 1918, the museum collection included collections of insects, soil, minerals, stuffed birds and animals, herbarium of local flora and a huge number of photographs. In 1920 the museum was opened to the public.
Today the museum collection numbers more than 150 thousand exhibits, including the world's only model of a steam engine, invented by I. Polzunov in 1763. This rarity has been on display since 1825.
Of particular interest among visitors are archaeological finds that tell about the history of ancient Altai, various household items, as well as numismatic, historical, technical and mineralogical collections.
