The Vernadsky Geological Museum is the first in Moscow and the second in Russia after Peter the Great's Kunstkamera. Its creation is closely connected with the activities of Mikhail Lomonosov: after traveling through Germany the great scientist returned with a new conviction: one should learn not only from books but also from natural specimens. In 1755 the Imperial Moscow University was founded. As early as March of that year the Ural industrialists Demidovs donated to the university the mineralogical cabinet of I.F. Henkel, which became the basis of the future museum. Subsequently and up to the present day the museum's collection has been supplemented by philanthropists and magnates.
One of the museum's halls with a salt pillar. Photo: kudamoscow.ru
Mineralogical collection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Among the museum's important patrons was Emperor Alexander I, who donated the fine mineralogical collection of Princess Anna Yablonovskaya. Catherine Romanovna Dashkova — an aristocrat, stateswoman, writer and educator — also took part in assembling the museum's collection. The princess donated 5,500 museum exhibits. Prince Alexander Alexandrovich Urusov — a well-known archaeologist, mineralogist and educator — donated a valuable collection of rare minerals. Many members of the scientific community and supporters of Enlightenment ideas considered it their duty to participate in forming the museum's collection.
Portrait of Alexander I by J. Dow
D.G. Levitsky. Portrait of Princess E.R. Dashkova. 1784
The museum expanded, relocated and occupied various buildings until academics A.P. Pavlov and V.I. Vernadsky were able to obtain state funding for the construction of a separate building in which teaching and research in geology, paleontology and mineralogy could be carried out. In 1914–1918 a new museum building was constructed on Mokhovaya Street to a design by architect Roman Ivanovich Klein. With the move into the new building the Geological Museum split into two — the Geological Museum, headed by A.P. Pavlov, and the Paleontological Museum, led by M.V. Pavlova. The Geological Museum was opened to the public in 1922, the Mineralogical in 1924. The concept of the Geological Museum differed from that of the Kunstkamera: the Kunstkamera collected rare, curious and outstanding exhibits, while the Geological Museum assembled typical specimens for student training.
Building of the Geological Museum on Mokhovaya Street
The museum's exhibition tells about minerals as a natural phenomenon, their structure, physical, chemical and optical properties, and methods of application in various areas of human life. The collection includes a wide variety of samples: rhodonites, jasper, malachite, amethysts, lazurites, topazes, beryls and smoky quartz, unique specimens found in the Urals, gemstones, pseudomorphs and other mineral species. Study of the Vernadsky Geological Museum's exhibits influenced the professional formation of the renowned Soviet geologists E.I. Semyonova and A.P. Khomyakov, who later discovered dozens of new minerals.
