History of the Museum

The Ishym museum for local lore, history and economics was opened in 1923. The museum was organized on the initiative and through exertions of a single person, an enthusiastic historian G. Levin who collected and systematized historical exhibits, studied nature and archaeology of Ishym. Since its organization and till 1953 the museum had no premises of its own. Around the museum local historical societies were organized that were involved in research and publishing activities on the history of the town. Since the beginning of the World War II the museum activities were suspended. After the war when some efforts to reconstruct the museum failed it was closed in 1953. The most precious exhibits were given to the museums in Tyumen, Tobolsk, and Yalutorovsk. The other exhibits are being kept in school museums and in private collections.

After many decades of oblivion, at the end of the XXth century a new era in reviving a cultural and historical heritage of Ishym. In 1989 a public society ‘Cathedral’ was organized, which major task was to reconstruct the Epiphany Cathedral. The society undertook serous work on chronicles, and systematized a lot of data on the town’s history. On the initiative of the ‘Cathedral’ a local historical museum was opened in 1991 in the house of a former parish school. The previous decade has revealed great interest of the Ishym residents towards the history of the town. Recently a number of articles have been published on history and merchant traditions of Ishym. Since 1999 a local almanac ‘Korkina Slobods’ has been published attracting a wide range of researchers from the Ural and Siberia.