F.I.Schmit was a prominent Russian expert in Byzantine history, history and theory of art and museum studies. The article is written on the basis of archival materials (letters) from the archival fund of S.F.Platonov stored in the Manuscript Department of the Russian National Library (Saint-Petersburg). This source allows us to refine the history of relations between these two historians, the context of their research activities, intellectual and everyday practices of the academic community in Russia in late XIX - early XX century.