A.R. Vargas de Bedemar Forest Museum
The A.R. Vargas de Bedemar Forest Museum is one of the oldest “forest” museums in the country. It traces its history back to the Forest Cabinet established in 1865 at the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy (now the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, RSAU-MTAA named after K.A. Timiryazev) and is its direct successor. The fate of the museum and its collections is closely intertwined with the names of prominent forestry scientists, as well as with the scientific and pedagogical work of the staff of the Department of Forestry. In 1865, the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy was opened, encompassing not only the manor buildings but also the forest tract (the future Forest Experimental Station). The first Director was Academician N.I. Zheleznov, who in 1862 invited Lieutenant Colonel of the Corps of Foresters A.R. Vargas de Bedemar – a renowned surveyor and forest manager – to “make an inventory of the forest.” The results of his work included the first maps of the forest tract and the “first book of the Academy” – a taxation description of the Forest Estate – which laid the foundation for a century and a half of research by the Department of Forestry. The Forestry Department was among the Academy’s first educational divisions. From the very beginning, two teaching cabinets operated under the Department of Forest Sciences: Forestry and Forest Mensuration. In 1876, Fedor Karlovich Arnold became the Director of the Academy, and Professor Mitrofan Kuzmich Tursky became the head of the Department of Forestry. In 1878, on the initiative of M.K. Tursky and with the support of F.K. Arnold, the Department of Forestry and the cabinets of Forestry and Forest Mensuration were moved to a separate building – an 18th-century mansion – where they remain to this day. On the second floor, Professor Tursky consolidated the disparate collections into a single Forest Cabinet. The A.R. Vargas de Bedemar Forest Museum was established in 2015 based on the holdings of the Department of Forestry and the Forest Cabinet. Today, the Museum occupies a cozy circular room on the second floor of Academic Building № 13. The exhibition is built around four main collections and unique exhibits: Professor M.K. Tursky’s “Wooden Library” – a unique xylotheque consisting of wooden “books” made from different tree species; Collection of Tree Cross-Sections, numbering over a hundred longitudinal and cross-sectional cuts of various tree species; Carpological Collection occupies the center of the hall and includes over 500 glass vessels containing seeds, as well as numerous individual specimens; Collection of Diseases and Pests, demonstrating the diversity of pathogenic and harmful organisms affecting forest systems. The A.R. Vargas de Bedemar Forest Museum is not merely a place for storing and displaying rare objects; it is the scientific heritage of the Petrovsky Agricultural and Forestry Academy and generations of forestry scientists.
Address: Moscow, Pryanishnikova St., 17
