The legal basis for the formation of the museum science of Imperial Tomsk University

This article is dedicated to solving the actual scientific problem about the legislative foundations of museum construction. The materials of Imperial Tomsk University make it possible to examine the application of such important act documents as the University Charter of 1863 and the tsarist decree on the opening of the university in Tomsk in 1888. The authors analyze the content of the legislativ acts, find out the list of museums allowed by the authorities. The historical paradox in the museum history of Tomsk University is revealed. According to the University Charter of 1863, there were four faculties in Russian universities as a rule. They created rooms and museums of zoology, mineralogy, botany, anatomy, history and archaeology. These museums also were planned at Tomsk University during its foundation in 1878. Following the law, the head of the construction committee professor V.M. Florinskiy founded the Archaeological Museum at Tomsk University in 1882. However, the opening of Imperial Tomsk University took place in 1888 and only single medical faculty was opened. On the basis of provisional states, university museums of zoology, mineralogy, botany and anatomy were financed from the state treasury. The Archaeological Museum was out of state, and F.M. Florinskiy himself provided its work. He attracted donations in the form of money and museum collections, formed rich funds for archaeology, ethnography, and history. Without any outside support, he made and published a catalogue in three volumes of the Archaeological Museum. Therefore, he transformed the university's museum into one of the most famous in Russia. Four other museums relied on state support as well as charity. They were equipped well and provided with money for scientific expeditions to collect museum subjects. Prominent researchers such as botanists S.I. Korzhinskiy and P.N. Krylov, geologist A.M. Zaitsev zoologist N.F. Kashchenko and anatomist N.M. Maliev worked in the university museums. The government's decision to allow females to work in the museums played an important part in the personnel provision of the university museums. In 1916, two graduates of the Siberian Higher Women's Courses, T. Tripolitova and E. Kiselyova, were admitted to the botanical and zoological museums of Imperial Tomsk University. At the end of the article, the authors admit that the legislative regulation of museum science at Imperial Tomsk University in the late 19th and early 20th century had some shortcomings. But complete rejection of laws issued before 1917 had an adverse effect on Tomsk University' museums of Soviet era.

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