Internet resources: 19th c. Russian photography goes online

Digital library “Runivers” has released on Internet an archive of works by 19th c. Russian school photographers. All the photographs can be freely viewed online.

The archive features among others works of one of the pioneers of the world photography Sergei Levitsky, father of photo reporting in Russia Karl Bulla, one of the founders of genre photography Vasily Carrick, author of the “Portrait gallery of Russian writers, scientists and artists” Konstantin Shapiro and many other Russian photographers of 19th century.

Photographs in the archive have been arranged according to the subject, photographer and genre. There is also an “Articles on Russian photography” section which so far covers three materials.

“Today works of Russian photographers of 19h century may be found in numerous archives and museum expositions, however in the Internet epoch more and more often people can hardly find time to visit museums. “Runivers” offers an open access to unique works for all those who take an interest in Russian photo art”, the “Runivers” President Mikhail Baranov said.

The “Runivers” library was founded in 2008 in order to digitize and make the Russian historical and cultural heritage freely available on Internet. Earlier the library released lections of Russian scientists and launched the “All Wars of Russia” project. Among latest books published on the website are the edition of 1902 “The Boyar Duma of ancient Russia” by V.O. Klyuchevsky, the book “Dealings between Russia, Bukhara and Khiva within three centuries” by S.V. Zhukovsky issued in 1915 and many others.