Geo&Bio (Jun 2023)
Paulina Tikhonova, a botanist and head of the Kherson Museum of Natural History in the 1920s and early 1930s
Abstract
The aim of the article is to explore the life and professional path of Paulina Tikhonova, a botanist and head of the Kherson Natural History Museum, during the difficult period of formation of the museum network in the early 1920s to early 1930s. The importance of the research is due to the need to create a complete history of the museum science in Ukraine through a series of studies on the history of individual museums, their managers and employees. The source base of this article is a complex of discovered archival materials on the history of museums of the Kherson region. These materials are stored in the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine in the fund P 166 of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (1920–1946 People’s Commissariat of Education of the UkrSSR). The history of the Kherson Natural History Museum dates back to 1899, when the Natural History Museum of the Kherson Governorate Zemstvo was established. The Kherson Museum of Natural History is one of the 152 state-registered museums and one of the 10 natural history museums in the Soviet museum network. The article describes the stages of Paulina Tikhonova’s education from primary education to getting higher education in Odessa. The biography and the main stages of her professional growth are shown, the professional transformation from the head of the visual instruments workshop of the Bender Zemstvo, the instructor for the production of visual natural instruments of the Kherson Governorate Zemstvo, assistant of the Kherson Polytechnic Institute, and teacher of the Kherson Institute of Public Education to the head of the Kherson Natural History Museum. Scientific expeditions in the territories of the Kherson region became the main source of enrichment of the museum’s collection. Among them were trips to Dovhyi and Kruglyi islands, to Yahorlyk Bay, and the Kinburn Spit. Besides, in the article the structure of the Kherson Museum of Natural History is considered, the quantitative and qualitative composition of the collection is clarified, ways of its enrichment and other topics are considered. Regular working relations with local educational establishments and leading scientific institutions and individual researchers are reflected.
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