The collection of the Lipetsk Museum of Local Lore includes the personal belongings of Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, a famous geographer, explorer, statistician, and statesman. These include two card table brushes, a box, and a stamp with a handle shaped like the head of the multi-faced Janus. These items were donated to the museum by the scientist’s granddaughter Vera Dmitriyevna Boldyryova-Semyonova-Tyan-Shanskaya.
Pyotr Semyonov was born on January 14, 1827, in the Ryazanka estate near the village of Urusovo (now part of the Chaplyginsky District, Lipetsk Oblast). This was where he spent his childhood. Later, he conducted scientific research on the territory of what is now the Lipetsk Oblast and worked on his master’s thesis “Flora of the Don Region”. In 1851, he married Vera Alexandrovna Chulkova in the Church of Archangel Michael in the village of Arkhangelskoye (Podosinki). Later, Pyotr Semyonov often visited his elder brother Nikolay Petrovich who had inherited the estate in Ryazanka after their mother’s death.
For 41 years, Pyotr Semyonov was the vice-chairman of the Russian Geographical Society. For 24 years, he also served as the president of the Russian Entomological Society. He is mostly known as a geographer, traveler, and the first explorer of the Tian Shan mountains. In 1906, in honor of the 50th anniversary of his famous expedition of 1856–1857, a second last name was added to his name, making him Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky. Moreover, Pyotr Semyonov inspired dozens of scientific expeditions and brought up a generation of Russian geographers, many of whom went on to become world-renowned scientists.
For 33 years, Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky headed the Russian statistical office. It was also largely due to his efforts that the first census was held. Over 50 years, he gathered one of the finest private collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings in Europe, with over 700 paintings and more than 3,000 engravings and etchings. All the artworks ended up in the State Hermitage Museum. He sold the paintings at very low prices and donated the engravings and etchings.
