WHEN VILNIUS UNIVERSITY WAS CLOSED: THE GEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS OF VILNIUS UNIVERSITY IN THE VILNIUS MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES

In Vilnius University Geology museum gathered, scientifically unique, material was never hidden from society. These resources are perfectly fit for: education, geoscientific knowledge propagation, informal natural science education (Rudnickaitė, 2003; 2007; 2012; ect.). When writing about the geology and mineralogy collections of Vilnius University, the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities and the Department of Natural History of the Museum of Antiquities under the Vilnius Public Library are always necessarily, though often fragmentarily, mentioned. This is an attempt to identify the part of the Geological collections that was transferred to the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities compiled by associate member of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission, teacher of natural sciences of the Vilnius 1st boys' gymnasium, Kajetan Tamulewicz (1828-1870), a catalogue of the Department of Natural History of the Museum of Antiquities under the Vilnius Public Library from 1905, a catalogue of mineralogy compiled by a professor of the Vilnius Medicine and Surgery Academy and the author of several textbooks in mineralogy, Ignacy Jakowicki (1794-1847), from 1836 and other known sources. The scientific quality of the collections, their structure and more outstanding exibits are discussed. A small part of the collections, which were taken away in the 1840s and brought back from the Ilya Mechnikov State University in Odessa to the Geology and Mineralogy Museum of Vilnius University by professor Juozas Paškevičius and Eugenija Rudnickaitė on 23 May 1986, has also been used for the research. The author attempts to identify the exibits of the geological collections of Vilnius University that remained in Vilnius and were subsequently transferred to the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities (later, the Museum of Antiquities under the Vilnius Public Library) by comparing the list of exibits returned from the University of Odesa with the data in Jakowicki's catalogue. It was mentioned in the minutes of the annual session of the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission of 11 January 1858 that the systematically arranged collections became an excellent teaching aid for young people aspiring to education, and during the last year the museum received 11,800 visitors. The author can assert that the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities made a great contribution to society's education and training of school children, the development of the science of geology and mineralogy in the period when there was no institution of higher education in Lithuania. E.Tyszkiewich had an exclusive role in this activity - he continued geological research even after the closure of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities.