Museum of Autographs named after Emperor Nicholas II

The Museum of Autographs named after Emperor Nicholas II, which is the only museum of this kind in Russia, was founded in Novosibirsk in 1988 on the initiative of S.O. Volsky. The museum bears the name of the last Russian emperor, since Novosibirsk owes its appearance on the world map to Nicholas II: in 1903, the rescript of the Emperor Novosibirsk (then the village of Novo-Nikolaevsk) received the status of a city and until 1926 bore the name of its founder (Novo-Nikolaevsk). Since the memory of Nicholas II has not yet been immortalized in Novosibirsk, it was decided to name the museum of autographs in his honor.

The main task of the museum is to collect in one place and preserve for future generations samples of handwriting of people who have left a noticeable mark in world history. With the help of images of specific historical characters belonging to different eras, cultures and peoples, the museum seeks to paint a collective portrait of all mankind. The museum collects not just autographs, but autographs in photos. The drawing of handwriting and the image of a person captured in the photo, merging into a single visual image, turn into an excellent visual aid for studying the cultural features of the country and the civilizational environment that this person represents. And taken together, the images of outstanding citizens of the world, collected in the museum collection, make it possible to see, so to speak, the face of all mankind, and from its various angles: racial, linguistic, aesthetic, political, etc., because the most ordinary photo with an autograph can contain a huge amount of information. Such, in brief, are the philosophical foundations on which the work of the Museum of Autographs named after Emperor Nicholas II is based.

The museum’s collection mainly includes autographs of famous political and public figures of our time: presidents and prime ministers, constitutional monarchs of Europe and heads of Asian theocratic states, charismatic leaders of popular movements and leaders of religious denominations. All autographs presented in the museum are authentic (authentic) and personal (i.e. they are not typographical or any other reproduction of the original). The vast majority of them were donated to the museum by their owners.