First decades of the Museum history are still waiting for their explorers, but it is evident that it became what it now is because many wealthy and educated persons participated vividly in its fate. Special place among them belonged to Demidoff's family.

Demidoff's family was one of the first-rate Russian industrial dynasties of XVIII century. First of them was Demid Antufiev, a smith in Tula. His son, Nikita Demidoff, was already a rich armourer possessing his own factory, and he was ennobled be Peter the Great in 1720. Nikita's elder son, Akinfy, learned mining in Germany and became actually the founders of Demidoff's "empire".

Members of Demidoff's family used to spent significant portion of their funds for charitable purposes. They gave monetary support to newly established universities in Moscow and Tomsk, sponsored developments in science and culture, gathered own collections and libraries which donated not infrequently to the same universities. Besides they founded several prizes of Russian Academy of Sciences.