The Museum of Industry and Art is the first museum in Ivanovo. It was founded in 1912 by Dmitry Burylin. Some collections are related to the history of the city, but the museum has many interesting exhibits that Dmitry Burylin bought in Europe. For example, death masks of great people or a collection of medieval armor and weapons.
Several generations of the Burylin family owned a textile factory in Ivanovo since the end of the 17th century. Dmitry Burylin has headed the family business since 1872. He was the first who started machine processing of fabrics at his factory.
In addition to the successful development of production, Dmitry Burylin is known as a collector of coins, medals, archaeological and historical artifacts. To search for rare things, he traveled to Western Europe. In 1913, he traveled to Egypt. He brought artifacts from the excavations of the necropolis of the shield-bearer Ankhef (10th century BC). Now they are stored in the Ivanovo Art Museum.
Dmitry Burylin exhibited some of the exhibits from his collection at exhibitions in Moscow. However, later he decided to found his own museum in his native Ivanovo-Voznesensk (as Ivanovo was called until 1932). In 1914, he built a museum building near the Embankment of the Uvod River and named it the “Museum of Industry and Art”.
Burylin`s museum collections are so large that they were later divided into several museums. Next to the Museum of Industry and Art was the house where Dmitry Burylin and his family lived. In 1987, there was placed collection of the Ivanovo Calico Museum. The collection of the Ivanovo Art Museum was placed in the building of the Real School.
After the nationalization of the Museum of Industry and Art in 1917, Dmitry Burylin became its curator. Later the museum was named after his name. Of great interest are the interiors of the house, which Dmitry Burylin built in the Art Nouveau style.
