Mykolayiv Regional Museum of Local History “Staroflotski Barracks” is one of the oldest museums in Ukraine. It was established on 15 (28) December 1913. Museum history The museum's history begins in 1803 in Mykolaiv. One of the founders of the museum was Admiral de Traverse. For more than 40 years the museum had collected valuable works of the craftsmen from the whole region. Eyewitnesses who visited museum in the early 19th century proved that museum, accept the ancient archaeological sites, has contained minerals, shells, stuffed animals, ethnographic exhibits. Also there were maps, plans of cities, buildings and ship models. The collection was traditional for that time – here the natural artifacts were located near the ancient. In 30 years of 19th century the objects from the museum were transmitted to Odessa, Kherson and Kerch, and only a small part of the exhibits remained in Mykolaiv Region. In February 1912, the descendants of Emmanuel Frantsov who died in 1909 and who was the owner of the unique natural science collections approached to the council of Mykolaiv. According to his will, this collection was presented to the city, but before that several requirements should have been fulfilled – to provide the space for collection's preservation. The Mykolaiv duma established a special commission the members of which were Duma's speakers and well-known public figures. S.I. Gaiduchenko was selected as the Head of the commission. On Sunday, 15 December 1913, during the opening ceremony of the museum Mayor M. Leontovich, the representatives of the city's Duma and numerous guests were presented. The first director of the museum was S. I. Gaiduchenko. After the opening, a lot of things had changed: the funds had received new items of archeology, interesting documentary sources, photographs, weapons, objects of ethnography and numismatics. The natural collection also had filled up. The city's government had given a certain amount of money for buying antiquities. The financial book for the years 1913–1916, which is stored in the archives of the museum, contained the bills and receipts with the list of purchased items. In 1916 – 1917, S. I. Gaiduchenko together with A. D. Petraschuk traveled to the Grand Duke Mykola Mykolajovych estate to the Katerynoslav province. From that place they brought the Cossack overgrave cross, "stone women", archeological items, stuffed birds and animals. In June 1918, the 58th Prague Infantry Regiment was decided to be a part of the museum. Despite