The displayed formal family portrait in a red velvet frame was made in 1901 in Moscow in Nikolsky’s photo studio. That year, several significant events in the life of Ivan Sytin, in particular, the Sytins celebrated the 25th anniversary of their wedding. His wife Yevdokiya Ivanovna supported him in all his endeavors. They married in 1876 and lived together for almost half a century. Together they raised ten children — six sons and four daughters.

That same year, 1901, the 35th anniversary of Ivan Dmitrievich Sytin’s career in publishing was widely celebrated. Having started with a small lithographic workshop, he established the publishing house Sytin & Co in 1889 with a capital of 110,000 rubles. The printing house was built on Valovaya Street, and bookstores were opened in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Odessa and Voronezh. The company’s turnover reached 2.5 million rubles. By that time, Sytin had become the largest publisher, producing cheap and well-made textbooks, children’s books, classical works, Orthodox literature, as well as the magazine “Around the World” (“Vokrug Sveta”), the newspaper “The Russian Word” with an illustrated supplement “Sparks” (“Iskry”), and the series “Library of Self-Education”. The latter included 47 books on history, philosophy, economic and natural sciences.

The issue of “The Russian Word” dated October 2, 1901 described the celebration as follows,