Concepts of exhibiting ethnographic collections of the 18th century Kunstkamera of the Imperial Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The exposition of the 18th century Kunstkamera of the Imperial Academy of Sciences was arranged according to the principle of a universal, all-encompassing presentation of the surrounding world through material monuments. Along with natural history collections, items related to the traditional spiritual and material culture of various peoples were displayed in the Kunstkamera. As part of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, the Kunstkamera was a kind of public presentation of the activities of academicians, reflecting the development of scientific knowledge in a particular area through the principles of organizing objects and their interpretation. This article analyzes the stages of exhibiting objects of traditional culture, their relationship and interdependence with the development of scientific interest in the “description of peoples”. In the first decades of public exposure for the Kunstkamera (1730s–1740s), the items of traditional culture of any nation were exhibited based on their functional purpose. Large-scale expeditionary geographic studies of Russia, begun by Peter I and continued during subsequent reigns, significantly expanded the body of information and materials stored and studied at the Imperial Academy of Sciences. The ethnographic assemblies received state “publication” during the ethnographic carnival, organized on the occasion of celebrations upon the signing of a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna. Since the end of the 1740s, due to the expeditionary research of the territories of the Russian Empire, the collection of ethnographic items has acquired a systemic classification character, which contributes to a reliable reflection of the system of organizing life sustainment for a certain people in specific territorial conditions. By the last decades of the 18th century, the ethnographic exposition of the Kunstkamera of the Imperial Academy of Sciences was the result of an integrated scientific approach to the presentation of the cultural diversity of the peoples of the Russian Empire.