Nikolai Bartram

[1] His father, Dmitri Ernestovich Bartram, was a watercolor artist, who had a small workshop where he made toys.

When he was sixteen, he began studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, but had to quit after two years, due to poor health.

This led him to the works of the historian, Ivan Zabelin, and the ethnographer, Vera Kharuzina [ru], both of whom became acquaintances.

From 1904, he served as an artist for the Moscow Zemstvo and, until 1917, was head of the art department at the Museum of Handicrafts [ru].

[2] In October 1918, as World War I was winding down, he and Yevdokia founded the Moscow Toy Museum [ru]; although it was not opened to the general public until 1921.