V.M. Florinsky: becoming a collector in Russia in the XIX century

A biographical study of the collector’s personality, using one of the founders of Tomsk University, V.M. Florinsky as an example, is posed in the paper. Based on archival sources, the historical context of the emergence of interest in collecting is established, with an example of a rare recollection of childhood and initial passion towards collecting. As a consequence, the author points out the insuffi-cient research on children’s collecting in the foreign and Russian scientific literature, especially regard-ing historical studies. It is concluded that this research case study of V.M. Florinsky is a case in which personality traits towards the accumulation of sources, developed since childhood, coincided with a historical situation in which it was on the basis of personal collections that local and university museums were based as well as scientific and educational activities were organized.