Fersman Mineralogical Museum () is one of the largest mineral museums of the world, located in Moscow, Russia. Its collections include more than 135,000 items. Among them natural crystals, geodes, druses and other kinds of mineral treasures. The museum was named after Alexander Fersman.
History Early history The museum was founded in 1716 in Saint Petersburg.
On 5 December 1747 a great fire destroyed virtually the whole collection. In 1836 the Kunstkamera was divided into 7 separate museums, including Mineralogical museum which was moved to the new building. In 1898 the museum was expanded and renamed the Geological museum.
In Moscow Museum was moved from Petersburg to Moscow in 1934 together with the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Collections
All museum acquisitions since 1716 were divided at the beginning of 20th century by the academician Vladimir Vernadsky to 5 main collections: Systematic collection. Crystal collection. Locality collections. Pseudomorph collection. Gems and stone art collection.
Directors
1835–1845 Grigori Gelmersen 1845–1857 Konstantin Grevingk 1857–1866 Adolf Gebel 1866–1873 Nikolai Koksharov 1873–1900 Fyodor Shmidt 1900–1906 Feodosy Chernyshov 1906–1919 Vladimir Vernadsky 1919–1945 Alexander Fersman 1930–1945 Vladimir Kryzhanovsky (executive director) 1945–1945 Vladimir Kryzhanovsky 1947–1953 Dmitry S. Belyankin 1953–1976 Georgi Barsanov 1976–1980 Yuri Orlov 1980–1982 Vladimir Sobolev 1983–1995 Aleksandr Godovikov 1995–2010 Margarita Novgorodova 2011–2015 Viktor Garanin 2016–present Pavel Plechov
References
External links
Photo (1024x768) Fersman Mineralogical Museum home page Article in the GeoWikipedia