This room is devoted to the Museum’s founders, here the figures of Angelo, Ettore and in particular Federico Craveri, are described. The wonderful frescoes in liberty style on the walls and ceilings date back to 1919 when Euclide Milano, who was the director of the Museum had them made by Giorgio Boasso for the room devoted to the soldiers from Bra who died in World War 1. If we visit the room clockwise the first showcase is devoted to the Craveri family and to the history of the Museum. The second room is about Federico’s exploration journeys along the coasts of south California searching for the guano islands. The third room illustrates the setting up of the museum, the meteorological observatory and Ettore and Federico’s placement of collections after Federico’s return from America. The fourth room is devoted to Federico’s natural science research, popularisation and teaching activity: on the wall we can see large maps illustrating the itineraries of the Federico Craveri’s research journeys in North and Central America between 1855 and 1859.
Last, in the centre of the room, we can see the Ramsden electrostatic machine used by Federico in his physics classes at the Technical School in Bra in 1870, which was donated to the museum by the Technical College “E. Guala” in 2020.
A short video illustrating Federico Craveri and his exploration journeys in South California ( Federico is played by the actor Felice Andreasi) as well as the origins of the museum is available at the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jiTSYflijw
