The First All-Russian Hygienic Exhibition: between science and Popularization

Medicine today has gone beyond the boundaries of a science; it is actively present in the cultural space. Hygienic practices and sanitary standards regulate human behavior. In this regard it is very important to popularize medical knowledge. The museum can be a useful tool for this purpose. In 1893, firstly in russian history the All-Russian Hygienic Exhibition was organized. The subject of the article is the methods of displaying medical knowledge at the First All-Russian Hygienic Exhibition. The aim of popularizing hygiene and health education at this exhibition was transferred to the hands of doctors. The First All-Russian Hygienic Exhibition was poorly attended despite the importance of its topic and careful preparation. That’s why the problem of the methods of presenting information used in the design of the exhibition should be analyzed. For the stated purpose, the methodology of M. Foucault was chosen - his characteristic of the "medical view", which determines the methodology of medical research in clinical medicine and, more broadly, the view of the world in general. At the First All-Russian Hygienic Exhibition, a conflict between the medical view and popularization can be observed. The organizers of the exhibition - doctors spoke in their "medical language", designed it in accordance with their vision of the world, which alienated visitors. As a result, the visitor found himself in a kind of huge sick body – a panorama of the sanitary system of the Russian Empire, in which from a multitude of exhibited parts it was necessary to select symptoms (unsanitary practices) and, having analyzed them, develop a treatment (individual hygienic measures). Doctors easily navigated the uniform series of exhibits and statistical data, and found useful information for themselves, but for a simple visitor such complex intellectual work turned out to be beyond their capabilities.

hygienic exhibition, medical museum, exhibition design, popularization, medical view, methods of exhibiting, materiality, concreteness, statistical nature, clinical medicine