Natural museums of Ukrainian universities (XIX - early XX centuries)

Abstract

One of the most important tasks of the modern history of Biology is the study of natural museums work at universities, their influence on the development of world science and their importance in the process of training the relevant specialists. One of the tasks is to study the role of the personalities of prominent scholars who have made a significant contribution to the formation and development of natural science. The article is devoted to the analysis of the formation, development, and work of the university natural museums of Ukraine, the creation of collections, systematization of the collected material, equipment of specialized premises and buildings. On the basis of the analyzed sources, the work of university natural museums, the state of collections, their quantity, filling, and cost are highlighted. The names of scholars of museums, patrons who donated collections and people who sold their own collections to natural museums are given. The article reveals a rather long history of universities in Ukraine. The oldest of them, Lviv University, was created in 1661 on the basis of the Jesuit College. A number of universities appear in the nineteenth century. In 1805 Kharkiv University was opened, and then in 1834 Kyiv University. Later, in 1865, the Novorosiysk University was founded in Odesa on the basis of the Rishelie Lyceum; in 1875 the Chernivtsi University was opened on the basis of the seminary. Together with universities, natural museums are created, which were becoming centers of knowledge and research. Universities opened geological, mineralogical, zoological, botanical, paleontological museums with appropriate collections. During the writing of the article, the materials from reports on the state and work of Kharkiv, Novorosiysk, Kyiv and Lviv universities were used. The functions of museums at universities are considered. This is, first of all, the identification and selection of materials for collections, the study, systematization, organization of the registration and storage of museum collections and as a result the exhibition. The role of the use of museum collections for the training and education of future specialists is also considered. Not the last role is assigned to university museums as popularizers of a positive image of an educational institution, and hence prospective recruitment of a new generation of students. It can be said with certainty that the natural museums of Ukrainian universities of the 19th and early 20th centuries were advanced and in no way inferior to the university museums of Europe concerning the organization, collection, systematization and conducting of scientific research.