The album presented in the museum’s collection is a modern replica, which was made according to the samples of the 19th century. It is made of leather, has metal corners, and is brown in color. It contains nine photographs of members of the Ulyanov family, which were made in sepia, an imitation technique of ancient black-and-white photographs.

The image on the left side shows Alexander Dmitrievich Blank, the father of Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, the grandfather of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Alexander Dmitrievich was born in 1802. From 1818 to 1824, he studied to become a military doctor at the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Then he worked as a doctor in the city of Smolensk. In 1826, he was sent to the city of Olonets to fight infectious diseases, where he stayed for several months. He was honored with a state award for the successful eradication of the epidemic. In the period from 1827 to 1831 he worked as a police doctor.

In 1831, while on duty in one of the hospitals during the cholera riot, Alexander Blank’s brother, Dmitry Dmitrievich, was killed. After that, Alexander Dmitrievich resigned. In the spring of 1833, he returned to service and got a job as a resident at the St. Mary Magdalene City Hospital for the Poor in St. Petersburg, where he served until 1841. At the same time, Alexander Dmitrievich worked at the naval hospital. In 1838, he received the civil rank of collegiate assessor. In 1842, Alexander Blank moved to Perm, where he got a job at the Alexander Hospital, and four years later he moved to the position of a doctor at the hospital of the Yugovsky Plant in the Perm province. In 1847, Alexander Dmitrievich retired with the rank of state councilor and the status of a hereditary nobleman.

The following year, Alexander Blank acquired an estate in the village of Kokushkino, Kazan province, with 40 souls (peasants), land and farms, and thereby entered the status of a landowner.