Alexander Postels’ Geognostic Collection and Its Scientific Significance

Abstract Participating in the 1826–1829 expedition round the world on board of the naval sloop Senyavin, commanded by F.P. Litke (F.B. von Lütke), Alexander Postels, who was then a scientist at the St. Petersburg University, collected a geognostic (geological and mineralogical) collection, which was then handed over to the Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. This collection was gathered in compliance with guidelines from the Admiralty Board and the Imperial Academy of Sciences. One of these guidelines was “Guidelines for the Would-Be Voyage about the World in What Concerns Mineralogy and the Theory of the Earthˮ, prepared by V.M. Severgin in 1803 for the first and all subsequent round-the-world expeditions to Russian possessions in Alaska. A.F. Postels’ collection provides an insight into the state of earth sciences as of the early and mid-19th century, and some reference samples from it are currently included in the systematic collections of academic museums: the Ore and Petrographic Museum of the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and A.E. Fersman Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences.