In 2016, the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society (RAO) celebrated its 170th anniversary, founded in 1846 in St. Petersburg as the Archaeological and Numismatic Society (since 1849 the Imperial Archaeological Society, since 1866 the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society). RAO made a significant contribution to the development of domestic culture and the entire complex of antiquities. By the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Society turned into a scientific center of the European level, which largely determined the main areas of research in various fields of Russian historical and philological science. The richest information on the history of RAO is collected in the monograph "Russian Archaeological Society for the Third Quarter of a Century of Its Existence (1897-1921): Historical Essay" by the classic of Russian and Soviet antiquities, academician S. A. Zhebel? va (1867-1941), first published in full form. It covers the last decades of the Company's activities from the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. until its closure in 1924. The publication is equipped with a detailed scientific commentary and supplemented with a bio-bibliographic dictionary of members of the Russian Academy of Education from 1846 to 1924, that is, from the moment the Company was founded until its closure.