In the article the activities of the Imperial Russian Geographical society West-Siberian department, its Altai subdivision and Siberian publishing houses in the sphere of issuing scientific literature devoted to the Altai are examined. The work is based on archive data as well as on subject analysis of literature published in the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century. The author comes to the conclusion that all aspects of geography, history, ethnography, flora and fauna of the Altai were completely and multifariously enough reflected on the pages of Siberian pre-revolutionary editions.