« Back       Contact information  •  History  •  Holdings  •  Access & Facilities  •  Bibliography

ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-140

Last update of repository: 19 August 2019

Gosudarstvennyi Politekhnicheskii muzei (GPM)


Holdings

documents—21,766 units; personal records—94 fonds; photographs—1,075; negatives—over 41,000

The museum's so-called Documentary Fond (Dokumental'nyi fond) includes close to over 41,000 units of basic holdings. The Scientific Archive includes a large part of the administrative records of the museum of 1921–2007, with many documents about the foundation and development of the museum, the organization of special exhibits, relations with scientists, advertisements, and correspondence with factories and scientific institutions. There is an extensive collection of documents relating to inventions from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, including imperial privileges, patents, inventors' plans and attestations. One collection of special interest comprises the fond relating to the Polytechnic Exhibition of 1872 and the foundation of the museum. There are also a number of documents relating to the activities of well-known Russian and foreign scientists, scholars, engineers, and inventors.
        There are over 90 fonds of personal papers, including the papers of P.P. Petrov, a specialist in chemical technology, who was the first director of the museum; the scientist and inventor K.E. Tsiolkovskii; and A.A. Petrovskii, a radio-electronic engineer, among many others.
        Graphic materials in the basic museum fond total over 5,500 units, many of which had been used for or related to early museum exhibits. There are several auxiliary collections of photographs and negatives, including a collection of diapositives on glass produced by the museum itself (1872–1922) and a collection of reproductions of past exhibits going back to the nineteenth century. There are extensive collections of engravings, photographs, and postcards, relating to workshops, machinery, trade guilds, and other developments in plants, factories, and cottage industries. There are graphic materials relating the first electric power stations, automobiles, and other technological developments. One auxiliary fond consists of photographic negatives (ca. 41,000 units) reproducing published materials relating to science and technology, exhibitions in this museum and others, individual items from museum exhibits, and portraits of scientists and scholars.
        The Fond of Rare Books includes over 2,000 books on the history of science and technology, including many prerevolutionary guides and catalogues to Russian and foreign trade and manufacturing firms.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted