Nabokov’s photographs, Mendeleev’s minerals, dinosaur bones, and meteorites: St Petersburg University launches four online exhibitions
St Petersburg University continues to develop museum and exhibition activities even in mass self-isolation conditions. In April, St Petersburg University has opened up access to four more online exhibitions.
The Defense: to the 90th anniversary of the novel
Vladimir Nabokov, 1936, a photo by an unknown author from the collection of the Nabokov Museum, St Petersburg University
22 April marked 121 years since the birth of Vladimir Nabokov. On this occasion and in honour of the 90th anniversary of the novel The Defense, the Vladimir Nabokov Museum of St Petersburg University launched an online exhibition. Among the objects on display are: photographs of the writer; rare editions of the novel in different languages; and illustrations for the book. Each exhibit comes with a description or detailed commentary on its history. In total, 34 items from the museum's collection are presented to the visitors.
To see the exhibition, visit the website of St Petersburg University or the izi.TRAVEL platform.
Space and geology
A stony meteorite (chondrite) with a hardening crust, Russia, from the collection of the Petrography Museum of St Petersburg University
The Petrography Museum of St Petersburg University has opened access to its collection as part of the online exhibition ‘Space and Geology’. Visitors can see the main objects of study of space geology: meteorites, and terrestrial rocks similar to them and to lunar rocks. Most of the meteorites came to Earth from the asteroid belt, some came from the Moon and Mars. At the exhibition, you can see a light grey labradorite, which is widely occurring in the upper layer of the Moon mainland. Impactites formed as a result of the impact of meteorites on the Earth are presented at the exhibition by a suevite. Some minerals of terrestrial origin are named by geologists in honour of outstanding astronauts. For example, the gagarinite is named in honour of Yuri Gagarin, and the armstrongite in honour of Neil Armstrong. The rocks in which these minerals are found are also on display.
To see the exhibition, visit the website of St Petersburg University.
The collection of meteorites and minerals of the Mineralogical Museum of St Petersburg University
Quartz (drusy crystals) from the collection of Dmitri Mendeleev, stored in the Mineralogical Museum of St Petersburg University
The Mineralogical Museum of St Petersburg University has also opened online access to its collection of minerals and meteorites collected in different parts of the Earth. The museum was founded in 1785. Its mineralogical collection is the oldest one in Russia. Famous scientists took part in its building, including Dmitri Mendeleev, Ernst Hoffmann, and Vladimir Vernadsky. Each exhibit featured in the exhibition comes with some background information about the history of its discovery. The online exhibition displays, for example, a drusy quartz crystals (rock crystal) from the collection of Dmitri Mendeleev. As noted in the description, the mineral was found in the Swiss Alps and was considered the favourite sample of Mendeleev: the images of this druse can be found in many of his textbooks.
To see the exhibition, click here.
The palaeontological discovery of Professor Amalitskii
Inostrancevia’s skull, a plaster replica of the original found by Professor Amalitskii, from the Palaeontological collection of St Petersburg University
13 July 2020 marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of Professor Vladimir Amalitskii, a Russian geologist and palaeontologist and St Petersburg University graduate. He was the first to establish the similarity of freshwater molluscs, vertebrates and flora from the Permian continental deposits of Russia and South Africa. There appeared therefore the first evidence that the northern and southern continents in the Late Permian were a single land with similar plants and animals. As a result of labour-intensive searching to confirm the hypothesis, Professor Amalitskii and his wife discovered the richest location of Perm vertebrates in Russia. It is in the village of Sokolki on the Small Northern Dvina River. The skeletons of ‘Perm monsters’ from these places were cleaned and assembled. In 1900, the assembled skeleton of a lizard found in Russia was presented to the public for the first time in history. A significant event for Russian palaeontology took place in the University Geological Cabinet. This exhibition features items from the scientific heritage of Professor Amalitskii.
To see the exhibition, visit the website of St Petersburg University or the izi.TRAVEL platform.