Arctic and Antarctic Museum, Polar exploration museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Arctic and Antarctic Museum is a museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, dedicated to polar exploration. It displays ships, scientific instruments, photographs, and objects collected from expeditions across both polar regions.
The museum was established in 1930 as part of a Soviet research institute for Arctic studies. It relocated to a former church building from the 1820s, where it remains today.
The museum's first exhibition had three sections, including "National-Cultural Development of the Arctic", and Soviet polar expeditions were encouraged to donate items on their return. Many objects came as gifts from polar explorers, pilots, ship captains, photographers, artists and journalists. Finds from the archaeological excavations of Mangazeya, a Far North town, later entered the collection.
The museum occupies the former Nikolskaya Old Believers' Church on Marata Street, a short walk from Vladimirskaya metro station. The building was rebuilt for the museum in 1934–1936 under architect Alexander Sivkov, so the exhibition halls follow a church plan rather than a purpose-built gallery layout. Allow time for two floors of displays covering both polar regions.
The Sh-2 amphibious aircraft aboard the sunken steamship Chelyuskin entered the museum's collection in 1936 and is listed as item number 1 in its acquisition book. The plane was not used in the rescue of the crew; the survivors were taken off the ice by pilots flying other aircraft.
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