Museum Libraries: Exhibition “The Hermitage Library. Pages from Recent History (1918-2018)” is opening in the State Hermitage Museum

A new exhibition “The Hermitage Library. Pages from Recent History (1918-2018)” is opening in the State Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg) on October 24, 2018.

The exhibition marks the centenary of the museum library’s formation after the 1917 revolution. 

The principles laid down in those early years still underlie the library’s work. The former imperial collection was reconstructed meeting the tasks set for the museum’s academic activity in the new circumstances, acquiring a strict art history profile. The history of the library is closely linked with the history of the country and of the museum. 

The exhibition showcases books which preserve the memory of repressed Hermitage staff. The books are also reminders of the hardships of the war years, the lives of Hermitage staff members who survived the siege of Leningrad or were evacuated and those who fought at the front. The history of the library continues with books published during Krushchev’s ‘thaw’ and in the difficult period of the 1990s, as well as those presented to the museum as gifts in recent years. A separate section features publications dedicated to anniversaries and other memorial dates in the museum’s history which are traditionally marked by exhibitions and collections of scholarly articles. Besides books the display includes historical documents, photographs and “tools of the librarian’s work” – items used in the work of the library at various times. The display also features exhibits from other Hermitage departments: the Department of the History of Russian Culture, the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory Museum and the Department of the History and Restoration of Architectural Monuments. Around 180 items have been selected for the display.