Irbit Historical and Ethnographic Museum (first building)

About museum

The Irbit Historical and Ethnographic Museum is a unique provincial museum founded in 1883 on the initiative of the Ural Society of Naturalists (UOLE). The newspaper “Irbit Fair Leaf” wrote in 1893: “The founding of the museum was laid by the collections of the former county school…”. In 1911 the museum was housed in the house of the Moscow merchant P. V. Mikhailov, donated to the city according to his will. During the Civil War, looting and fires broke out in Irbit, and many museum exhibits were plundered or destroyed. In 1921, at the initiative of the education department of the city’s political enlightenment office, it was transformed into a mobile educational-demonstration museum of visual aids for the county department of public education with a collection of 3,675 items. In the early 1930s the museum, thanks to the work of M. D. Golubykh, moved to a new building and actively expanded its collections. In 1943 the museum was mothballed and did not operate. It reopened in 1945 in the building at 50 Kirov Street, where it remains to this day. Over the years the museum has accumulated unique and remarkable exhibits on the history of Irbit. The rich past of this proud Ural city is linked to international trade and a fair renowned throughout Russia. In the Soviet era Irbit became one of the largest industrial cities in Sverdlovsk Oblast. The products of the Irbit Motorcycle Plant are known worldwide. The museum’s collections and exhibitions will reveal to visitors the most fascinating pages of the city’s history. Museum halls: “The Region’s Wildlife”. “Decree of Catherine II in Action — on the 240th Anniversary of the City's Foundation”. “Irbit Fair: Goods and People”. “Everyday Life, Customs and Social Classes of Irbit”. “Crafts and Trades of Irbit Uyezd”. “Wars in the Lives of Irbit Residents”. “The Home Front — For the Front!”. “Irbit’s Industrial Power”. On the basement (cellar) floor the following exhibitions are located: “Minerals of the Urals”. “Museum No. 2 of the SIZO (pre-trial detention center) of Irbit”. “Paleontology and Archaeology”. “Open-storage collections — machinery and household items of the 19th–20th centuries.”