Gregory Ephimovich Shchurovsky


Gregory Ephimovich Shchurovsky was a Russian Professor of geology in Moscow.

Life

Shchurovsky was born in Moscow in 1804. He ended up in an orphanage because his father was killed in 1812 and his mother, Maria Gerassimovna, could not afford to keep him. He took his surname to honour a benefactor. He attended university in Moscow where he studied a new course of geology.
In 1863 he led the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography. Together with other leading members of the society discussed having a museum. Their first move in this direction was to establish a library. In 1871 Moscow council set aside half a million roubles to create a museum. A committee was formed with Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich as honorary chair. The formation of a museum was timely as Peter the Great's 200th anniversary would inspire an exhibition that would be used to launch the new Polytechnic Museum.
He travelled extensively around the growing Russian empire writing about people and rocks.
He died in 1884 when August Yulevich Davidov became president of the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography.