Прасковья Уварова и Виленский музей древностей : по материалам фонда Уваровых Государственного исторического музея

ENCountess Praskovya Uvarova (Прасковья Сергеевна Уварова, 1840-1924) was the chairperson of the Moscow Archaeological Society, an honorary member of the Russian Historical Museum and the sister of the museum’s first director Nikolay Shcherbatov (Николай Сергеевич Щербатов, 1853-1929). Uvarovas archival material held in the Uvarov collection of the State Historical Museum in Moscow - correspondence and diaries from 1890 to 1916 - significantly expand the sources of the history of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. The main topics of Uvarova’s correspondence with Dmitry Dovgialo (Дмитрий Иванович До- вгялло, 1868-1942), Nikolay Sergiyevsky (Николай Александрович Сергиевский, 1831-1900), Yulian Krachkovsky (Юлиан Фомич Крачковский, 1840- 1903), Ivan Sprogis (Иван Яковлевич Спрогис; Latvian: Janis Sprogis, 1835-1916), Flavian Dobriansky (Флавиан Николаевич Добрянский, 1848-1919), Benedict Ploshchiansky (Венедикт Михайлович Площанский, 1834-1902) and other persons were the organisation of the 9th congress of Russian archaeologists in Vilnius in 1893, various scientific issues (the research of the so-called North Western Region and the objects held in the Vilnius Museum), book exchange and the increase of the collection of the Vilnius Public Library and the Library of the Moscow Archaeological Society.Particularly interesting and important is the diary of Uvarovas trip to Vilnius in 1891, in which the countess recorded her impressions of a visit to the city to solve the matters of the preparation for the 9th congress of Russian archaeologists. Uvarova explored the library and the museum and described its collections in great detail. She gave a warm and emotional description of Eustachy Tyszkiewicz (1814-1873), to whom, in her words, “the Vilnius museum is obliged for its existence” (Виленский музей обязан своим существованием). The diary reflects her acquaintance with the members of the commission, museum employees and researchers, some of whom - Krachkovsky, Fyodor Pokrovsky (Федор Васильевич Покровский, 1855-1903), Sprogis, Ploshchiansky and Dobriansky - are characterised in more detail. Uvarovas later correspondence reveals how her relations with these persons developed, and how this acquaintance was used for the benefit of the science of archaeology and, certainly, the Russian State Historical Museum and the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. [From the publication]