# Mapmaker to the Tsars: The Lithographic Studio of A. Il'in, St. Petersburg

Library of Congress Junior Fellows made surprising discoveries in the summer of 2012 while looking for books from the Yudin Collection, the largest private Russian library in the West. Maggie Burke and Caitlin Oakley, at the time recent graduates of the College of William & Mary, and Meredith Doubleday, then entering her senior year at the University of Rochester, focused on works by the once prominent mapmaking firm of A. Il'in's, founded in St. Petersburg in 1859. Working with Barbara Dash, a librarian in the Rare Materials Section, the students used Yudin's own handwritten catalog, Library of Congress card catalogs, and information from Russian libraries to identify all manner of publications produced by Il'in's firm, including Yudin's copy of the rare, color-illustrated coronation album of Czar Alexander III and his young wife, Empress Mariia Feodorona. Just as surprising a discovery was the personal connection of one of the students with cartographer Il'in's American descendants. In the presentation, Il'in's great granddaughter tells her own dramatic story.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2012
- By: Library Of Congress. Rare Book Division
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2024698123/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2024698123?play=1)