The Museum is a part of the University courtyard ensemble. The construction was completed in 1837 (project by architect M. Korinfsky). The building hosted a chemistry lab (first floor) and a physics lab (second floor).
This was the first real chemistry lab in Kazan, and it started the history of organic chemistry in Russia. The Museum itself was established in 1863, its first keeper was pharmacist A. Loman who proceeded to serve here for 20 years.
First floor houses the circular Alexander Butlerov Lecture Room. Three sectors of wooden desks with four rows each, a big table, two water faucets, a ventilation hood, and a chalkboard.
Busts of Alexander Butlerov and Nikolay Zinin were installed here in early 20th century. The interior has been meticulously preserved since the room’s construction.
Wall cabinets here store books on chemistry, bought for the University since 1823, mostly in French and German languages.
The first Russian chemical journal was established in 1869 in Saint-Petersburg with Zinin's and Butlerov's direct involvement. It was the journal of Russian Society of Physics and Chemistry. All the issues since day one can be found in the Museum.
Another room is a chemistry lab, with four workplaces and three ventilation cabinets. One of them has been preserved in its original design, with a real furnace, a tiled cast-iron door, an ash pan, a wall chimney with two cover plugs - that’s how the ventilation was made before electricity came to be.
Finally, the sancta sanctorum itself – the item storage room. Six cases with ornament, made from mahogany by Karl Claus’s designs.
All synthesized compounds were placed here until mid-20th century. The cabinets now have over 500 compunds that were first synthesized by professors and students of Kazan University.
The memorial cabinet with exquisite furniture – three bookcases, a bureau, and five leather chairs. An old three-jet chandelier signals that it was gas-based.
Dr, Butlerov used Wurtz's Paris lab blueprints to create a little gas production facility in the basement. The gas was used for lighting and chemical experiments.
