The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their
Books.
The Political, Religious, Cultural, and Social Life of Russia's Imperial House
Case
6: Work and Leisure
"Bari's Tower," an
exhibit at the Vserossiiskaia
promyshlennaia vystavka, 1896 [All-Russian
Industrial Exhibition, Nizhnii Novgorod, 1896].
Album of original photographs.
From the library of Grand Duke Konstantin
Konstantinovich. NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division.
Photographic Services & Permissions
The nineteenth century was a period of rapid technological
innovations that transformed all aspects of society.
The enthusiasm engendered by scientific and technological
progress led to the wish to take periodic stock
and to display the accomplishments already attained.
In imitation of the first universal exhibition
of industrial products at the specially built Crystal
Palace in London (1851), the major countries organized
similar regional, national, and international fairs.
Members of the imperial family served as sponsors
and honorary chairmen of these displays, and their
libraries contained informative printed records
of many of them.
The endless stream of formal ceremonies at official
functions, coupled with the very real strains of
ruling over an empire with complex political (and
often familial) relationships with other nations,
all competing for international influence, made
for an often stressful, always fatiguing, existence.
The Romanovs of the nineteenth century sought relief
through the warmth of family life, and indulging
in favorite leisure activities – from swimming
to painting.
Next Section: Case
7: Culture
