The State Historical Museum is one of the most important repositories of the nation’s centuries-long culture and history, as represented by Russian-guest artist Toma Vagner in today’s Doodle. The famous museum, which was founded 150 years ago today in Moscow with the purpose of celebrating Russian history and recording its cultural progress, houses artefacts from from antiquity to the turn of the twentieth century.
Relics such as an unearthed longboat, Scythian gold artefacts, glass and ceramic masterpieces, Tsars’ belongings such as Ivan IV the Terrible and Peter I, and birch bark manuscripts from Novgorod, Russia’s oldest city, are among the museum’s 39 galleries.
In total, 4.5 million artefacts of Russian history and culture are on display in numerous thematic exhibitions, including one of Russia’s greatest currency collections. One of the museum’s highlights is a full genealogical tree of Russian kings, complete with portraits.
The massive crimson museum was restored from 1986 to 1997, giving visitors a taste of the building’s former magnificence in the late 1800s. Its permanent collection comprises rare objects found nowhere else in Russia, such as maps, iconography, engravings, early printed books, ancient fabrics, and great works of art, all of which tell the storey of Russia to each visitor that walks through its halls.
Happy 150th Anniversary, State Historical Museum!