Institute of out-of-school education in Petrograd as a center of museum education: Prequel

The article is devoted to the early stage of development of the practice of training museum personal at the Institute of out-of-school education in Petrograd. The Institute was founded in 1918. From the very beginning, a field related to museum and exhibition work was included in its program. The draft of its curriculum was developed by M. V. Novorussky, who had rich experience related to museums of visual aids (educational museums). This program was never realized. At the beginning of 1919, I. P. Mordvinov, who made a significant contribution to educational work in the North-West of Russia in the prerevolutionary period, was employee of the Institute. He became the first lecturer of the “museum group”. However, his activity was of a more general nature, and was associated not so much with museum work as with the search for materials for educational activities per se (bibliography, etc.). In the summer of 1919, Mordvinov left the Institute, and a new period began in the history of museum education. Period 1918–1919 can be considered the prehistory of the Institute’s formation as a center of museum education.