3-005-579 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Expedition caravan in the Akkem River valley, 1895. From a collection of 60 photos by V.V. Sapozhnikov (1861-1924), a geographer, botanist, ethnographer, and professor at Tomsk State University (the first institution of higher education established in Siberia), who made significant contributions to the study of the South Siberian region. The photographs were taken during his expeditions to the Altai Mountains in 1895-99 and later reproduced from his negatives for the Altai State Regional Studies Museum in Barnaul. The collection is unique for its complex and spectacular views, covering a variety of geographic features of the South Siberian region. In many of the photos, Sapozhnikov or other members of the expeditions are shown, struggling with difficult terrain and swollen rivers. Sapozhnikov's scientific activity was closely connected with the Russian Geographical Society, to which he was elected in 1898.