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Pavel Grigoriyevich Demidoff (1738–1821)
Pavel G. Demidoff was one of most enlightened members of Demidoff's
family. He learned at Goettingen University and Freiburg Mining
Academy, visited C. Linnaeus in Uppsala. He was doctor honoris causa
of Moscow University. His Museum of Natural History he donated to
Moscow University in 1802 became his most prominent input in developments
of natural history sciences in Russia. This gathering of coins,
minerals, herbs and animals, together with excellent library, was
known as Demidoff's Museum. Besides this collection proper, he endowed
great amount of money to support both the Museum (as a part of University's
Cabinet) and his curator and director (G. Fischer became the first
one). To acknowledge this contribution, a new, Demidoff's Department
of Natural History was established in 1804 in Moscow University.
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 Demidoff's
Museum
Demidoff's Museum was originally placed in a separate building and
was accessible to its owner's friends only. Its zoological portion
included 15 Staffed mammals, 115 birds, 30 fishes and reptiles, many
insects and mollusk shells. The complete catalogue of this Museum
was prepared and published by G. Fischer in 1807. Unfortunately, most
of the original Demidoff's specimens were destroyed by the fire in
1812, only small number of the shells survived. Nearly 700 of them
are known now to be kept in the collections of the Zoological Museum
of Moscow University, including type specimens of 41 mollusk species. |
