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It is 140 years ago in 2007 that the Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867 was organized. It opened on 23 April 1867 in the Moscow Manege. The Exhibition was arranged by scholars who grouped together around the Imperial Society of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography.
The Ethnographic Exhibition pursued scientific and educational goals, i.e. "propagation of information among the masses on the study of people, familiarization with members of diverse tribes inhabiting Russia and related countries, and stimulating public interest in a study of their population and life styles".
The Exhibition represented traditional culture of the peoples indigenous to practically all parts of the Russian Empire: Russians and Byelorussians, Ukrainians and Moldavians; Estonians, Latvians and Finns, etc. On display were also materials pertaining to the Slavic population of Central and South-Eastern Europe, and this allowed, for the first time ever, demonstrating sets of clothes peculiar to east, west and south Slavs.
The Exhibition consisted of three sections. The first demonstrated the culture of various local ethnic groups and foreign Slavs. This part of the exhibition was laid out in situational scenes, each comprising a number of anthropologically accurate "figures", i.e. mannequins, clad in traditional costumes and surrounded with genuine household articles. The mannequins for displaying costumes were commissioned from sculptors (Professor N.A. Ramazanov and Academician S.I. Ivanov) and artists (I.L. Sevrugin, Ya.M. Yakovlev, S.P. Zakrevsky, A.M. Lyubimov and Geisert ), who relied on photographs received from various parts of Russia. Some of the mannequins were modeled from life. The scenes were arranged near structures characteristic of a particular ethnic culture, against a back-ground of landscapes typical of a given locality, among live vegetation. The second and the third sections were targeted at professional audiences concerned with ethnic culture. The second section featured photographs, albums and drawings with original representations of peasants and townsfolk, as well as costumes, articles of clothing, implements, utensils etc. The third section included anthropological and archaeological materials.
The exhibition displayed a total of about 300 mannequins in traditional costumes, 450 sets and articles of clothing, 1,100 household objects, as well as musical instruments, scale models of structures and implements, lubok popular prints and 1,600 photographs.
The scientific, cultural and, to certain extent, political ideas underlying its organization remain topical today. Therefore, going back to the experience of our predecessors so as to introduce present-day audiences to the materials of the 1867 Ethnographic Exhibition seems to be significant, not only as a tribute to historical memory, but also as evidence of cultural links among the numerous peoples indigenous to Eurasian space.
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