The exhibition “From Rurik to the present day” at the Sheltozero Veps Ethnographic Museum named after Rurik Petrovich Lonin tells the visitors about the traditions, customs and everyday life of one of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Karelia — the Veps.
The museum’s collections began to take shape in the 1960s on the initiative of Rurik Petrovich Lonin (1930–2009), Sheltozero local historian, collector of Veps folklore, and writer. The first exhibition was opened in 1967, and in 1980 the folk museum became a branch of the Karelian State Museum of Local Lore.
Today the museum’s funds include more than 10.5 thousand items. More than 1,500 of them are on display. Most of them are the items collected in the Veps villages of Karelia, a small part of them was obtained from the Leningrad and Vologda regions. The museum’s collection consists of archaeological finds, pottery and wooden utensils, artifacts made from birch bark and straw, products of blacksmithing, weaving, written sources, photographs, etc. The most interesting ethnographic materials are located in the interiors of the Veps hut and the household yard.
Exhibits are marked with AR stickers for identification purposes.
