History of the Botanical Museum

1823 – Reorganization of the Pharmaceutical Garden into the Imperial Botanical Garden (IBG). Herbarium, Seminarium (collection of living seeds), and Museum (collection of diverse plant objects, e.g. fruits, woods etc., required special conditions for their keeping) were founded by the Botanical Garden. The first director of the Imperial Botanical Garden became F.B. Fischer; before this appointment he was director of the famous Botanical Garden in Gorenki, prince A.K. Razumovsky’s estate by Moscow. Initially, the staff of the IBG consisted of director, two vice-directors, secretary (who worked also as librarian and curator of collections), clerk, painter and ca. 25 gardners. The only scientist was the director himself. Collections of the IBG were replenished by many naturalists  who brought the plant samples from their trips.

1825 – P.G. Pomortsev participated in E.I. Eichwald’s Caspian expedition to collect the plants for the IBG.

1821-1828 – G.I. Langsdorf’s expedition in the basin of Amasonca continued in 1831-1835 by L.Riedel and B. Luchnat.

1827-1830 – O.I. Schowitz collected plants in Transcaucasia and Persia. He sent in the IBG his extensive herbarium and collections of seeds, woods, and living plants.

1830 – The IBG was transfered from the Medicine Department to the Court Ministry that improved its financing.  Additional means for organization of botanical expeditions were obtained.

1826-1832 – Baron V.F. Karvinsky’s expedition to Mexico.

1830ies -  Expeditions of N.S. Turczaninov to Transbaikalia and A.I. Schrenks to Kazakhstan and to Northern Europe.

1847 – The Museum was moved into the 6 separate rooms.

1848 – K.E. Merklin was employed as physiologist. He started his studies of fossil plants with emphasis on woods.

1850-1855 – K.L. Meyer is director of the IBG.

1852 – K.I. Maximowicz was employed to the IBG. In 1853-1857 he explored flora of the Russian Far East, and brought his collections to the IBG.

1855 -1864 – E.L. Regel is director of the IBG. He is the author of enormous number of publications on gardening and systematics cultivated plants.

1855 – Reorganization of the IBG. The practical gardening (instead of the exploration of Russian flora) was recognized as main purpose of the IBG activity. Extraordinary academician F.I. Ruprecht, physiologist K.E. Merklin and assistant K.F. Meinshausen  left the IBG.

1850-es – New building for the Museum have been erected, and the first exposition of the plant samples (mostly woods and fossil plants) was made.

1859-1863 – K.I. Maximowicz’s expedition to the Russian Far East, North China and Japan.

1863 - The IBG was transfered from the Court Ministry to the Ministry of the State Property.

1864-1868 - R.E. Trautfetter is director of the IBG. E.L. Regel became main botanist and head of the Museum and of the living plant collection. K.I. Maximowicz was at the head of the Herbarium. 

1868-1870 – S.M. Rosanov is director of the IBC. Biological laboratory for anatomical and physiological studies was founded by him as department of the Museum. In this laboratory S.M. Rosanov conducted his studies of pigments and silica deposits in plant cells.

1869 – F.I. Ruprecht’s trip to the Great Britain. Many wood samples were brought by him to the Museum.  

1870 – Number of the researchers in the IBG reached seven persons (three main botanists, three assistants, and one librarian).

1871-1877 – K.I. Maximowicz is director of the IBG.

1870-1875 – A.F. Batalin put the collections of the Museum in order according to Endlicher’s system and made up their catalogues. A.F. Batalin maintained also the Biological laboratory where he conducted his studies of the plant movements, of the influence of light on plant morphogenesis, the physiology of flowering and germination.

1870-1880 – many collections have been obtained by the Museum from the naturalists (G.I. Radde from Caucasus, N.I. Kuznetsov and A.A.Antonov from Ural, A.L. Czekanowsky and F. Augustinovich from East Siberia, P.P. Semenov from Tian-Shang, I.T. Borstschow from the Aral-Caspian depression, N.G. Potanin from Zaisan region, O.A. Fedchenko from Central Asia, A.K. Bekker from Transcaspian district, N.M. Przewalsky, M.B. Pevtsov and N.G. Potanin from Mongolia, China and Tibet, etc) whose trips were supported by the IBG or by the Russian Geographic Society.

1877 – A.F. Batalin is a head of the Museum and Biological laboratory. In early 1880ies he organized a station for the seed testing by the Biological laboratory where conducted the studies of morphology and physiology of crops.  The samples of these plants examined by A.F. Batalin are kept now in the Collection for Economic Botany.

1892 – N.A. Monteverde took up the position of director of the Museum and Biological laboratory. He started to register the plant samples in the card catalogues. In the Museum he arranged a new exposition on the economic botany, where mostly the farmaceutical and food plants were shown. He developed new methods of preparation of the plant exhibits.  As researcher, N.A. Monteverde studied the physiology of photosynthesis and the plant anatomy. The staff of the Museum consisted then of  two members only – the director and his assistant.

1890-1914 –Funds of the Museum were replenished by the materials collected by S.I. Korzhinsky (who traveled to Ural, Altai, and Fergana), I.K. Pachossky (Belarus), V.I. Lipsky and N.A. Busch (Caucasus), V.L. Komarov (Zeravshan and Far East), V.A. Dubiansky (California), V.N. Lubimenko (Java). Moreover, many plant samples were obtained from the expeditions to Siberia, Far East and Central Asia organized by the Department of Mirgation of the Russian government.   

1914-1917 – Investigations of the plants for pharmaceutical and industrial use were developed in the Museum by N.A. and N.N. Monteverde, V.N. Lubimenko, B.A. Fedchenko, V.L. Komarov, M.M. Iljin. Department of Pharmaceutical plants was established in the Museum (1915).

1917-1918. After the October revolution the IBG was renamed as Main Botanical Garden of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic). Several popular booklets about wild edible plants  were written and published by N.A. Monteverde, V.N. Lubimenko and G.A. Nadson while the dearth caused by the Civil War.

1919 – The Biological laboratory was separated from the Museum into the Department of Plant Ecology and Physiology. At the same time a laboratory for investigations of plant materials and drugs was established by the Museum. Chemical and pharmacognizic studies of pharmaceutical plants and plant stuffs (including the drugs used by the traditional oriental medicines) were conducted here by L.G. Spasski, A.S. Ginsberg, N.A. Monteverde, A.F. Hammerman, and I.A. Palibin.

1930 – The Main Botanical Garden was transfered from the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

1931 – The Main Botanical Garden consolidated with the Botanical Museum of the Academy of Sciences into Botanical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now – Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Former Herbarium of the Botanical Garden was replenished by herbaria from the Botanical Museum, and reorganized into the Department of Systematics and Geography of Higher Plants.

1929 – N.A. Monteverde was died, and I.A. Palibin became the director of the Botanical Museum. He prepared the guidebook on the Museum. Collections of the Museum numbered then more than 60000 units of issue, including 12000 ones in the Collection for Economic Botany, 10000 wood samples, 32000 samples of fruits and seeds, and 4000 samples of fossil plants.

1932-1933 – V.N.Sukachev was the head of the Musuem.

1933-1934 – N.V. Shipchinski was the head of the Musuem.

1934-1938 – K.M. Zavadski was the head of the Musuem.

1934 – Department of Plant Materials and Botanical Exploration (now Department of Plant Resources) was separated from the Museum. Investigations of the useful plants were continued there.

1939-1941 – Palaeobotanist A.V. Yarmolenko was the head of the Museum. while the Second Wolrd War he went to the front and was fallen.

1941-1945 – The Museum was partly evacuated to Kazan. Designer G.V. Arkadiev was its head during the war. Some staff members left in Leningrad during its blockade; they maintained the collections of the Museum.

1945-1950 – The Museum came back from Kazan and reestablished. A.N. Krisztofovicz, the outstanding palaeobotanist, was its head during this period.

1947 – A new reconstruction plan for the Museum was worked out. According to this plan, the expositions should be of the higher standard of knowledge. Three expositions (“History of the plant world”, “Vegetation of the Earth”, and “I.V. Michurin’s theory in biology and the nature transformation in the USSR”) have been intended but the last one was not realized.

1950-1959 – V.I. Poliansky, the famous algologist, was the head of the Museum. During this period the exposition of the Museum was completely reconstructed. V.I. Poliansky took part in designing of a new building for the Museum, and in preparation of collections to the removing. 

1960-1970 – F.Kh. Bakhteev was the head of the Museum. The subject of his research was genetics and evolution of the cultivated species  of barely.  The morphological, anatomical and taxonomic studiies of some higher plant taxa (works of E.S. Chavchavadze, I.V. Grushvitzky, G.V. Shibakina, N.T. Skvortsova) as well as ecological studies of aquatic plants (A.P. Belavskaja, N.B. Serafimovich) were developed in the Museum during this period.

1960 – New spacious building for the Museum was erected. Collections and exhibits were removed, and the expositions were restored in new rooms. Exposition “Vegetation of the Earth” was essentially renewed by many new sections. Dendrological gallery as well as an exposition dedicated to 250^th  anniversary of the Komarov Botanical Institute were established.

1970–1988 – L.Yu. Budantsev was the head of the Museum. He revived palaeobotanical investigations in the Museum conducted also by G.V. Delle, L.B. Golovneva, and I.A. Ozerov. Moreover, the palinological iconotheque (collection of photos of pollen and sporen) was established by D.B. Arkhangelsky.

1975 – Exposition “Evolution of Plant World” was opened.

1978 – New guidbook for the exposition “Vegetation of the Earth” was published.

1984 – Exposition “Plants and Men” was opened.

1988-2003 – E.S. Chavchavadze, the wood anatomist, was the head of the Museum.  During this period the investigations were developed in such fields as wood anatomy (A.A. Oskolski, T.V. Arseneva, O.V. Sizonenko), reproductive biology of parasitic and aquatic plants (E.S. Teriokhin, N.B. Serafimovich, T.I. Kravtsova, S.I. Chubarov, V.O. Romanova), morphology of fruits and seeds (T.I. Kravtsova), and palaeobotany (L.B. Golovneva). Since 1994 the Museum was closed for the visitors because of numerous damages of its heating system. The staff members’ efforts were made to restoration of expositions and collections damaged by the hot water leakings.

2004-present – V.A. Nikolaev, the expert in systematics and evolution of diatoms, is the head of the Museum. In October 2004 the Museum was opened again for the visitors. Along with the permanent expositions, artistic and popular scientific exhibitions are regularly carried out in the Museum.