3-005-258 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Mezen Samoyeds, 1862. Sheet 30 from the album "Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie", volume 1. Description ethnographique des peuples de la Russie (Ethnographic description of the peoples of Russia) is a two-volume work published in Saint Petersburg in 1862 to mark the millennium of the founding of the Russian Empire (traditionally traced to the founding of the state of Kievan Rus' in 862). The work is dedicated to Tsar Alexander II. Volume 1 consists of 62 colored illustrations depicting ethnic groups from across the Russian Empire in their traditional dress. This volume also includes a fold-out table listing the different ethnic groups and the size of their populations in the cities in the empire, as well as a colored-coded ethnographic map that shows which groups inhabited which parts of the empire. Volume 2 is all text, and consists of detailed essays, in French, about the ethnic groups of the empire,their history, culture, language, and so forth,-which reflect the state of anthropological and historical knowledge of the 1860s. The book is the work of Gustav-Fedor Pauli (1817-67), a German ethnographer who immigrated to Russia.