Ivan Egorevich’s father died when he was 7, and the impoverished lad later very fortuitously found a job at the Moscow Armoury. Stroev and others there inspited his love for antiquity; he was always engaged in the professioanlization of archeology. His doctorate from St. Vladimir’s is honorary. D. I. Bagalei of Kharkov University named him the founder of “historical archeology.” He designated his daughter Maria and The Historical Museum as his only heirs, to receive his collections.
Where Associated: Armory
His father a celebrated painter and his mother the niece of prominent Slavophile Ivan Aksakov, Vladimir Konstantinovich became a numismatist and Orientalist, studying eastern languages, specializing in Arabic, at the Lazaervskii Institute. He held numerous positions of importance, the most important being custodian of the Armoury. At the IMAO, he held the post of secretary from 1888 and chair of the East Commission from 1911. He was also secretary of numerous Congresses, and sat on the organizing committee of all, beginning with the 7th in Iaroslavl, through the 16th in Pskov, which never came to pass.
One of the founding members of IMAO, Filimonov enjoyed the leisure of his noble background to educate himself in many aspects of archeology. In 1867 he was sent to Paris to manage the display of Russian antiquities at the International Exposition, and he also worked on the Ethnographic Exhibition in Moscow in 1879. A curator at both Moscow’s Armoury and the Rumiantsev Museum, the Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural Sciences, Anthropology,and Ethnography dispatched him to both Crimea and then the Caucasus to oversee excavations.