Album of Exhibit Item Photographs of the Antiques Brought by Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich from His Journeys in the East in 1890-1891: A Source and Archival Study
| 18 December 2025
Posted in
Archival funds and collections
УДК 94(47)
DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2017-4-63-87
Marina A. Chertilina
Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, Krasnogorsk, Russian Federation
Album of Exhibit Item Photographs of the Antiques Brought by Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich from His Journeys in the East in 1890-1891: A Source and Archival Study
Abstract
The article describes Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich Romanov’ journeys to the East in 1890-1891 and the unique art collection he brought back. The Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents (RGAKFD) stores an original ‘Album of exhibit item photographs of the antiques brought by Heir Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich from His journeys in the East in 1890-1891.’ The album is a work of art, each photo enclosed in a leather frame, album itself decorated with Oriental style drawings and hieroglyphs created by a Japanese artist. Photos of the antique items were made by Prince Gagarin. This publication is to popularize and introduce into scientific use new audio-visual sources from the RGAKFD. The article draws on memoirs of E. E. Ukhtomsky, who accompanied the Tsesarevich Nikolas Alexandrovich in His journeys and described the route. To study the original album and establish the authorship of the photos, a phototype album of the exhibit items published by the St. Petersburg Imperial Russian Society for Rescue on Waters in 1895, was used. Source studies analysis has established that the album was the only gift copy, presented to Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna. Why the Society organized the journey, the exhibition and the publication, has become clear after studying Empress Dowager’s biography. She was the founder and the trustee of the Society in Russia. Thus, another page of history concerning the Romanovs and displayed in photo documents from the RGAKFD has been reconstructed.
Keywords
Photo documents, Russian State Archives of Film and Photo Documents (RGAKFD), album of photos, Tsesarevich Nikolas Aleksandrovich Rovanov
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About the authors
Chertilina Marina Anatolievna, Russian State Archives of Film and Photo Documents (RGAKFD), information support department, senior specialist, Krasnogorsk, Russian Federation, +7-905-534-35-72, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it