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Primary sourcePhotograph1904

Washroom or Operating Room in the Physiological Laboratory

1904

A 1904 photograph of a washroom or operating room in the physiological laboratory in St Petersburg where Ivan Pavlov conducted his research.

Documents the laboratory setting where Pavlov conducted his digestion research around 1904.

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Black and white photograph of a tiled-looking room with three white wall-mounted sinks with pipes below, two glass bottles with tubes hanging on the wall, a dark wooden glass-fronted cabinet with bottles on top at left, an open white door, and a white table in the far room beyond an open doorway.
Washroom or operating room in the Physiological Laboratory, St Petersburg. Photograph, 1904. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This photograph, taken in 1904, shows a washroom or operating room in the Physiological Laboratory, either at the Institute of Experimental Medicine or the Imperial Military Medical Academy, in St Petersburg. It is held by the Wellcome Collection.

Why it matters

This space was part of the working environment in which Ivan Pavlov carried out his research into digestion around this period. Though Pavlov himself is not shown, the room gives a sense of the practical conditions, cleanliness measures and equipment that supported his laboratory work.

Look closer

  • What details in the room suggest it was used for cleaning or medical preparation?
  • Why might this ordinary, behind-the-scenes space have been photographed and preserved?
  • What does this image leave out about the actual research conducted in this laboratory?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ivan Pavlov on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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The Work of the Digestive Glands

Ivan Pavlov · 1897 (published 1902)

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Secondary source

Diagram of Pavlov's Conditioned Reflex Apparatus

Yerkes, R. M., & Morgulis, S.

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Primary source

Nobel Prize Portrait of Ivan Pavlov

Unknown · 1904

Scanned page of a Soviet government resolution in Russian, headed Postanovlenie Soveta Narodnykh Komissarov, dated 24 January 1921 in Moscow, Kremlin, with a signature at lower right. It recognizes academician I. P. Pavlov's scientific merits, sets up a commission, and grants supplies, a rations package, and housing.Document

Primary source

Sovnarkom Decree on Academician Pavlov

Vladimir Lenin · 24 January 1921

Painting of an elderly bearded man with white hair and glasses seated at a table by a window, hands clasped on a sheet of paper. Green-roofed houses and a red-roofed building are visible outside. A vase of white flowers sits on the table.Painting

Primary source

Portrait of Ivan Pavlov by Mikhail Nesterov

Mikhail Nesterov · 1935

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