The article contains a presentation of the concept and preliminary results of the new virtual project "Collectors of the Russian Ethnographic Museum", launched in 2021. Its purpose is to recreate individual portraits of scientists, correspondents and museum staff, personal and creative biographies of those who during the XIX — early XXI c., and were associated with the museum field. The fates of some of them are quite well known, others are little studied due to various circumstances. It's not just the famous specialists (ethnographers, linguists, folklorists, archaeologists, historians, etc.) and correspondents, but also representatives of different social circles, scientific and political views, levels of education, nationalities, confessions, ages, characters; with different motivation for ethnographic research and subjective approaches to their own collecting activities. Currently, according to the concept and well-thought-out scheme, materials about more than 130 people have been published, more than 30 museum employees participated in their creation. URL:https://ethnomuseum.ru/collections/projects/collectors/.