Ivan Kupreyanov

Who was Ivan Kupreyanov?

Ivan Antonovich Kupreyanov, also spelled in English as Kupreanof, was the head of the Russian-American Company in Russian America from 1835 to 1840. He built the famous residence, library and museum in Sitka called Baranof's Castle by early American settlers, who assumed that it had been built by Alexandr Baranov, Kupreyanov's predecessor by eighteen years. The residence was the site of the ceremony in which control of Russian America was transferred from Russia to the United States in 1867. Although the residence fell down in 1897, the hill where is was located is still called Castle Hill.

Kupreyanov and his wife, Yuliya Ivanovna, began a school for native girls in Sitka. It was closed at the end of his administration but was reopened later.