The book is dedictaed to the history of the Moscow Handicraft Museum, founded in 1882 by the Moscow Provincial Zemstvo on the initiative and with the financial support of Sergei Timofeevich Morozov. The publication examines in detail the stages of development and formation of the new areas of activity for Russian museum practices: the creative, artistic, organizational, educational, commercial areas. It reveals the principles of creating the collection and its presentation, examines in detail the stages of construction of the famous architectural complex of museum buildings in Leontievsky Lane, comprehensively provides information about the activities of the artists of the Handicraft Museum.
The publication was prepared on the materials of the collection of the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum of, where the collection of the Handicraft Museum was placed.
The album part presents the most valuable items of the collection (more than 250 items). Many exhibits, archival documents and photographs are published for the first time. The publication is supplied with an extensive scientific and reference apparatus - catalogue descriptions of objects, historical information about the artists, a chronicle of the museum, and an overview of exhibitions.
