The Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium was a secondary educational institution for women in Nizhny Novgorod, operating in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was originally known as the Nizhny Novgorod Mariinsky Women's School of the First Class; on 25 July 1869, by a decree of the Russian Empire, it was granted the name "Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium."[2] The gymnasium was located on Ilyinskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod. Among its alumnae was Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova, one of the foremost Fashion Designers from Nizhny Novgorod.

History and Building

The renaming of the school as a gymnasium took place during the reign of Emperor Alexander II and is recorded in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Education (pt. CXLIV, sec. I, p. 51), as well as in the Collection of Decrees of the Ministry of Public Education (vol. 4, St. Petersburg, 1871).[2]

The gymnasium's building on Ilyinskaya Street has survived. It now houses the administrative wing of the Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (NNGASU).[1]

Notable Alumnae

In 1878, Nadezhda Petrovna Lamanova (1861–1941) graduated from the gymnasium — a Russian and Soviet fashion designer, theatrical costume artist, holder of the title "Supplier to Her Imperial Majesty," and one of the founders of Russian and Soviet fashion in the twentieth century. Born in the selo of Shutilovo in Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, after graduating she enrolled in O. A. Suvorova's Moscow School of Cutting and Sewing; in 1879 she began working at the Voytkevich atelier, and in 1922 she became a member of the State Academy of Artistic Sciences.[1]

Commemoration

The decision to perpetuate the memory of Nadezhda Lamanova was adopted by the deputies of the City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod on 28 July 2021; the installation of the memorial plaque was previously approved by the Committee for the Commemoration of Distinguished Individuals and historical events in Nizhny Novgorod.[1] On 15 June 2023, a memorial plaque to Lamanova was unveiled on the façade of the NNGASU administrative building on Ilyinskaya Street — on the very building where the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium once stood.[1] The plaque's design was created by sculptor Tatyana Kholuyeva. The ceremony was organized by NNGASU and the private cultural institution "Museum of Fashion and Tailoring Arts named after N. P. Lamanova"; the event was attended by Vladimir Tarasov, Deputy Chairman of the City Duma, Sergey Yakovlev, Minister of Tourism and Crafts of Nizhny Novgorod Region, and Dmitry Shchegolev, rector of NNGASU.[1]

Sources

  1. Vremya N — Memorial plaque to fashion designer Nadezhda Lamanova unveiled on the façade of NNGASU (archive)
  2. docs.historyrussia.org — Electronic Library of Historical Documents (ELID) — 1869. July 25. — On granting the Nizhny Novgorod Mariinsky Women's School of the First Class…
  3. snejnevskie.tilda.ws — Nizhny Novgorod Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium — The gymnasium traces its history to the all-estate Mariinsky Women's School, opened on 29 March 1859 in a two-storey stone building on…
  4. ru.wikisource.org — File:Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium in Nizhny Novgorod.jpg — Wikisource — A photograph of the gymnasium building was published in August 1896 in the "Art Album of Nizhny Novgorod and…"