Secret Lab or the Hope of the State Darwin Museum

commemorating 130th anniversary of Nadezhda Ladygina-Kohts

27 April 2019 — 21 July 2019

Расположение: eng-name / eng-name / eng-name

The exhibition "Secret Lab or the Hope of the State Darwin Museum " – is dedicated to a unique woman, whose name has the same meaning as the Russian word for “hope” - Nadezhda. She was the first Russian woman zoopsychologist, a brilliant scientist and co-founder of the Darwin Museum. In her own laboratory she conducted unique experiments that were ahead of their time and became known all over the world.

The exhibition takes us to the beginning of the 20th century when higher education became available to women, who proved to be capable of making significant advances in science along with men. 

In 1908 young Nadezhda Ladygina began her studies at the Moscow Higher Courses for Women, where she met her future husband - talented young zoologist Alexander Kohts. As the listener of the Courses she was interested in the behavior of animals and particularly curious about at what level of the psyche development of primates the consciousness appears. 

In 1913 a loving husband bought the wife a baby chimpanzee Yoni, who became a member of the young family. Nadezhda, having equipped her own zoopsychological laboratory, studied Yoni's behavior as he developed: the use of tools, imitation, the conditional language of gestures and sounds, the expression of emotions, the recognition of colors, shapes, drawings. Later, she conducted laboratory experiments with rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), dogs, parrots, Corvidae or the crow family. 

In 1925 Nadezhda had her firstborn. Two hours after giving birth she began dictating to the nurse her observations of her son’s first reactions to various stimuli. Later she would combine the three-year experiments with chimpanzee Ioni and observations of her son Rudolf. After a comparative analysis of the obtained information in 1935 she published a book “Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child in their instincts, emotions, games, habits ...”. Having become worldwide famous the book was translated into main European languages. Before the Iron Curtain times, Western European scientists visited the Darwin Museum to get acquainted with the work of the first Russian woman zoopsychologist. 

The exhibition will for the first time display rare items from the archives of the Darwin Museum, which belonged to the founders. These are letters to the most prominent public and scientific figures of Russia, the USA, Europe; scientific and private diaries; experimental objects; documentary photos and film materials. 

For more than half a century the Kohts family dreamed of having their own building for the museum and planned in details the exhibition halls.  They commissioned paintings, drawings and sculptures for the Zoopsychological Department by renowned Soviet animal painters - Vasily Vatagin, Vadim Trofimov, Konstantin Flerov, whose works will also be shown at the exhibition. 

The Darwin Museum was founded by a family couple and its funds contain family photographs, touching personal poems and other memorial items. On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of Nadezhda Ladygina-Kohts - not only an outstanding scientist, but also a loving wife and mother - the museum will reveal the family history: wedding gifts, toys of their firstborn son, photos of happy family. 

MEMORIAL EVENING OF NADEZHDA LADYGINA-KOHTS WILL BE HELD ON MAY 16, 2019.

Секретная лаборатория или Надежда Дарвиновского музея
Philipp Fedulov, Alexander Kohts and Nadezhda 

Секретная лаборатория или Надежда Дарвиновского музея
Ladygina-Kohts with chimpanzee Ioni

Секретная лаборатория или Надежда Дарвиновского музея
Nadezhda Ladygina-Kohts and Alexander Kohts 



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