Exhibition about the history of guidebooks Automatic translate

"MOSCOW. Guidebook Evolution ”- an exhibition about the history of an important assistant in the study of any city. From June 29 to October 15 at the Museum of Moscow you can see how the appearance and contents of the guidebook in the widest sense of the word have changed over the centuries, from maps and prints to reference books of the 20th century, which are now quite suitable for exploring Moscow.

The expert traveler, who eventually turned into a tourist, appeared in Europe in the 18th century. Young representatives of aristocratic families went to Greece, Italy, Germany to get acquainted with architecture and ancient monuments. The Russian people did not lag behind in the exploration of their native expanses, but mainly during trips to relatives or for pilgrimage. At the end of the 18th century, the first guide to Moscow appeared. At this time, the city systematically developed all spheres of life, an interest in the urban environment arose. Festivities took place, in 1796 Tverskaya Boulevard appeared, a landmark for walks and meetings. Since then, until very recently, when traveling to an unfamiliar city, the guides could replace the guidebook - sometimes compact, sometimes the size of a brick.

At the exhibition “Moscow. Guidebook Evolution ”is easy to trace the development of this particular book genre throughout the 18th-20th centuries. For example, to find out what they wrote about Moscow in the 19th century, and what in the 20th century or when the guidebooks began to talk about the surroundings of Moscow, about development plans, about trade, transport, or city crime.

The exhibition features engravings, maps, plans, unique editions from the collection of the Moscow Museum, showing our city at different times. The earliest guide to Moscow dates back to 1782 - this is "Description of the Imperial Capital City of Moscow" by Vasily Ruban. The publication is stored in the museum’s rare book fund and will be shown at the exhibition. An interesting board game, released in 1947 for young citizens to introduce them to the architecture of Moscow. The guides of the 1930-1950s are richly illustrated, the publications of the thaw era are stylish and concise. Many of them continue to be relevant and today, for example, a walk in the Moscow district of Cheryomushki with a guide 50 years ago showed that there were not so many significant changes in the area.

By the way, each visitor to the exhibition will be able to participate in the creation of a common “Citizen’s Guidebook” at the time of 2018, indicating in a special profile the most favorite Moscow places.

Curators: Alina Fedorovich, chief curator of the Museum of Moscow, Pavel Gnilorybov, researcher at the Gilyarovsky Center, a branch of the Museum of Moscow.

Exhibition opening: June 28 at 19.00. Free admission.