The exhibition presents an album dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Peter I. The authors aimed to convey to the reader the main stages of the life and work of the emperor-reformer. For the commemorative edition, images that most faithfully reflected the era of Peter the Great were selected.
The album was compiled by Pyotr Petrov (1827–1891) and Sergey Shubinsky (1834–1913). The first of them is known as a writer, bibliographer, archivist, art historian and expert in the topography of St. Petersburg. The second was a journalist and historian, whom Soviet historical novelist Valentin Pikul (1929–1990) dubbed the “general of history” in recognition of his importance as a popularizer of science.
As the basis for the album, the authors used monographs on the deeds of Peter the Great, which set out the facts of the emperor’s biography, his statements and judgments, memories of people from the emperor’s entourage, descriptions of historical memorabilia and places, including landmarks associated with his name.
The staff of the “World Illustrated” periodical — founded and supervised by Hermann Hoppe — worked on the design of the album.
Hermann Hoppe (1836–1885) came to St. Petersburg in 1861 at the invitation of the publisher Maurice Wolff (1825–1883) and became head of the department of German literature in a large bookstore. Six years later, together with Herman Kornfeld, he founded his own publishing house, where he began to print calendars and fashion magazines. But his main brainchild was the family magazine “World Illustrated”, designed for the general reader. The magazine was published from 1869 to 1898.
Hoppe also founded a printing house equipped with various typefaces and other advanced equipment for its time, which made it possible to work on exclusive editions.
The pages of the commemorative anniversary album are decorated with vignettes and engraved headpieces, numerous illustrations, engravings depicting military and engineering ammunition. The text area is outlined with a pattern made up of military regalia. For this unique edition, the artists developed not only letters, but also a special font.
