Museums of the Yenisei Governorate of the early XX century: according to the memoirs of the British traveler M.F. Price

The trip to Siberia by Morgan Philips Price, which he undertook in 1910, resulted in his travel accounts “Siberia” published in London in 1912. In his memoirs, M.F. Price tells about his almost a yearlong living in the midst of Siberian society. Unpublished in Russia and never translated in Russian, the work provides some fresh insight into social and economic situation of the provincial territory. The paper seeks to compare the stereotypes of the representative of the English-speaking country about Siberia and Siberians, which prevailed at the beginning of the 20th century, with those outlined by the English-speaking researchers of the early 21st century. Meetings with the local people meticulously reproduced by Mr. Price allow verifying the ideas that have developed in historiography about the values and moods of Siberian society. The paper focuses primarily on Mr. Price’s accounts on cultural transformations of Siberia, development of the ideas about education, visits to provincial museums – the Krasnoyarsk City Museum, located in the administrative center of the province, and the Minusinsk Museum, the oldest museum of the Yenisei province. Particular attention is given to the way the museums were organized, managed, financed and met the needs of the local population. This paper thus provides detailed examination of the travel accounts “Siberia” written by M.F. Price. The prospect for further research is to continue reconstructing features of everyday life and the evolution of attitudes towards cultural space of the provincial territory at the beginning of the 20th century.

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