Vernadsky State Geological Museum

Mikhail Lomonosov had studied mining principles in Germany, concluding that "it is necessary to use not only books, but objects of Nature", and it was he who came up with the principals of the charter of Moscow Imperial University, founded in January 1755, and for the founding of its geological museum. The following month the Demidovs presented "the Mineral Study of Genkel" to the university. This collection was exhibited to the public in 1759 in the library of Aptekarsky House in the Department of Medicine. In 1778 Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov donated his own collection, along with 100,000 roubles for its maintenance, to the university and the new Faculty of Natural History and Agriculture was named after him. In 1791 the Study became the Museum of Natural History, in 220m² of the main building's Assembly Hall on Mokhovaya street, the museum's present site.It was transferred to the left-hand side of the first floor in 1805 (with Fischer von Waldheim made its director), but in 1812 most of its collections were lost in the burning of Moscow after Borodino, though its most valuable specimens were evacuated to Nizhny Novgorod and the losses were made up by donations and new purchases once the French invasion of Russia had been finally expelled. These donations included one in 1813, from Pavel's nephew Nikolay N. Demidov, of his "collection of the natural collections". In 1814 the Museum was set up again, this time on Bolshaya Nikitskaya street.