Freer/Sackler: Iran in Photograph

Iran in Photographs

The art of photography was introduced to Iran more than 150 years ago. Browse this site to view hundreds of photographs taken in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, from distinguished images of the Qajar royal family and expansive views of Persepolis to glimpses of everyday in life on the streets of Tehran. Explore the use of glass-plate negatives in early photography, research archival records, learn about collectors, and take an intimate look at life in Iran a century ago.

The Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery contain more than 1,100 original prints and glass-plate negatives by Antonin Sevruguin and other photographers. A grant from the Parsa Foundation funded the digitization and cataloging of the entire Freer and Sackler collection, the largest public collection of Sevruguin’s photographs outside of Iran. These prints and plates, assembled from the donated holdings of avid collectors and historians, form the core of a rapidly growing collection of early photography of Iran and establish the Freer and Sackler Archives as a leading center for its study.

If you have individual images or albums of photographs taken in Iran and other Near Eastern countries before 1950, please consider donating them to the Freer and Sackler Archives. Contact 202.633.0533 or AVRreference@si.edu for more information.

Myron Bement Smith Collection
66 photoprints, purchased in 1928

Myron Bement Smith Collection
695 glass negatives, purchased in 1951

Myron Bement Smith Collection
98 photoprints, collected in 1934

Jay Bisno Collection

Stephen Arpee Collection
Album of 99 albumen prints

Stephen Arpee Collection
62 albumen prints

Ernst Herzfeld Papers

Miscellaneous Collection

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Orientalist Photography

Orientalist Photography

The collection includes late nineteenth century and early twentieth century architecture in
Arab cityscapes and natural landscapes. The photos bear witness to the scars left by the
Ottoman empire , French and English. The collection includes postcards and albumen
photographs. The majority of the albumen photos where taken by professional
photographers, including the Zangaki brothers, Pascal Sabah and Lehnert & Landrock.

Orientalist photography (and painting) was born out of the westerners' desire for
entertainment and amusement. It capitalizes on portraying Arabs as savages in staged
settings. One section of the collection, the Colonial Harem postcards, is a testimony to this
notion. The Colonial Harem postcards were created primarily by French photographers.
The models for these postcards were very young girls from north Africa, primarily Morocco
, Alger, Tunis, and Egypt .. The photographs were staged to duplicate the compositions
of the western orientalist painters, embedding the false conception of the uncivilized Arab
even deeper in the western psyche.

The stereo-topical photographs of the Palestinian people and their lifestyle were created
to target western Christians, many of whom never traveled from their homes but were
curious about the birth place of Jesus.

Sirat Bani Hilal Digital Archive

 Sirat Bani Hilal Digital Archive

"The Sirat Bani Hilal Digital Archive is designed as an open access resource for the preservation and dissemination of audio recordings, written texts, photographic images and other materials related to the “Epic of the Bani Hilal tribe” (Arabic: Sīrat Banī Hilāl سيرة بني هلال ). The site is dedicated to the epic singers of al-Bakātūsh (Egypt) for their willingness to share their knowledge and performances of this thousand-year-old epic poem."

The Archive was created and is maintained with support of the American Council of Learned Societies and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Das Bild des Orients

Das Bild des Orients: Bilagentur für Islamische Kunst
 

Das Bild des Orients stellt Agenturen, Verlagen, wissenschaftlichen Institutionen und privaten Nutzern Bildmaterial zum islamischen, christlichen und Alten Orient in seiner Vielfalt zur Verfügung. Dabei sollen wissenschaftliche Interessen (Bildarchiv) und eine kommerzielle Nutzung (Bildagentur) miteinander verbunden werden.

Verstärkt wird auch historisches Bildmaterial zum Orient präsentiert. Aufgrund der großen Veränderungen im Orient kann man als "historisch" schon Bilder aus den 1960er Jahren (und älter) bezeichnen. Sie finden interessante Aufnahmen, u.a. aus der Türkei und dem Jemen, aufgenommen von dem Geologen Dr. Erich-Holm von Prosch, der u.a. in den 1950er Jahren auf Einladung Imam Ahmads (reg. 1948-62) im Jemen nach Erdöl gesucht hat. Aus seiner Sammlung stammen auch einige Aufnahmen, die Imam Ahmad bei seinem Besuch in Sanaa zeigen, u.a. mit dem saudischen König Saud b. Abd al-Aziz (1954).

Zu den Highlights gehören eine Aufnahme des deutschen Kaisers Wilhelm II. zusammen mit dem osmanischen Sultan Mehmed V. in der offenen Kutsche bei der Fahrt durch Konstantinopel (1917) oder die Gesamtansicht des Yildiz Saray mit der Hamidiye Moschee aus dem berühmten Photostudio Sebah & Joaillier in Konstantinopel.

Außerdem wird ausgesuchtes "Fremdmaterial" zugänglich gemacht, wie z.B. Photos aus dem Nachlass Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815 - 1905) der Stiftung Wetzstein, die in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

The image archive "Das Bild des Orients" offers a wide range of photographic material of the Islamic (Christian and Ancient) Orient to agencies, publishing houses and scholarly institutions as well to private users. Selling images is the basic to be able to run, enlarge and enhance the archive.

More and more historical photographs are also presented on the website. Due to the dramatic changes the Orient underwent since the 1960s, the label "historical" is given to images which are older than 40 years (in 2005). See e.g. the unknown photos and slides from Turkey and Yemen taken in the 1950s by the German geologist Dr. Erich-Holm von Prosch, one of the first oil explorers in Yemen, invited by Imam Ahmad (ruling 1948-62). From his collection comes a photo showing Imam Ahmad in Sanaa on occasion of the visit of the Saudi Arab king Saud b. Abd al-Aziz (in 1954) .

To the highlights belong images showing the German emperor Wilhelm II. together with the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V. in the open coach in Constantinople in 1917 or the general view of the Yildiz Saray with the Hamidiye mosque from the famous photo studio Sebah & Joaillier in Constantinople.

We will also present more selected photographic material from other institutions, such as the unusual photos from the estate of Johann Gottfried Wetzstein (1815 - 1905) in the Wetzstein foundation, kept in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

 Bildersuche   Erweiterte Suche 

Leuchtkasten

Alexandria Bombardment of 1882 Photograph Album

Alexandria Bombardment of 1882 Photograph Album

The Alexandria Bombardment of 1882 Photograph Album digital collection was originally compiled by Italian photographer Luigi Fiorillo. This unique resource documents the British naval attack on 'Urabi Pasha's nationalists, who revolted against Taufik Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, from 1879 to 1882. Fiorillo’s fifty page album records damage to Alexandria's neighborhoods, particularly the harbor and the fortress district. The images trace the development of episode from the arrival of the British fleet to the destruction of the emerging downtown district. Further, the photographs show the artillery and forts used by the resistance. The album also features portraits of the key players in the bombardment, including 'Urabi Pasha, Khedive Taufik, Admiral Seymour, and Sir Wolseley.

Fiorillo was active from the 1870s to the 1890s. Although his main studio was located in Alexandria, he is known to have traveled widely throughout Egypt and Africa. He is best known for this distinctive album.

Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library, American University in Cairo

The Architectural Heritage of the Ottoman Balkans - Machiel Kiel photographic archive

 "In September 2011 the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT) has launched a project for the digitization and publication of the photographic archive of Machiel Kiel. A former director of the NIT, Kiel is a renowned Dutch scholar intrinsically connected with the study of Ottoman architectural monuments in the Balkan countries, which he pioneered. His archive represents an invaluable source for researchers of this heritage. Created for the most part between the 1960s and 90s, it also contains visual documentation of many monuments that have not survived, or have been significantly altered in, the second half of the twentieth century.
The publication of Kiel’s archive by the NIT is hoped to significantly advance international research on this heritage.    
In May, 2012, the NIT made available online the almost 1300 images digitized and processed within phase 1 of the project, pertaining to Ottoman-Islamic architectural monuments in the Southeast-European countries (outside Turkey).
During phase 2 will be processed these images of monuments in Turkish Thrace; during phase 3, Christian monuments and mural painting from the Ottoman period will follow. The NIT will successively make available this material to the public.
For further information, please contact the coordinator of the project, Dr. Maximilian Hartmuth, at kielarchive@nit-istanbul.org"

Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel

Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel: Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa

The Land of Israel has always attracted professional and amateur photographers. Over the years, archives, institutions and individuals have kept rare collections, documenting its unique views and people. The university's library operates for the digital conservation and documentation of these contents, in order to keep them from wearing out and to provide accessibility for education and research purposes.

In the website are photographs from various sources that were donated to the library's Digital Media Center.

The digital collection is part of the work done by the library of Haifa University. Its purpose is to expose and provide accessibility to historical photographs of the Land of Israel. The project started as cooperation with the department of Land of Israel Studies in Haifa University and Bitmuna project.

The library staff scans and catalogues the photographs. Identification of documented locations, people and events is done with the help of collection owners, information received from users, and the kind help of Mr. Kanisberg, Ronnie.

The website allows access to the library's photographs collections according to theme, contributor or geography. It also allows access to the Digital Media Center's search options, where you can search freely for various materials.

All the photographs in the Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel website are available to the public, under fair use and copyright limitations.

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The Creswell Archive Online

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology: The Creswell Archive

In 1975 the Department of Eastern Art of the Ashmolean Museum was fortunate enough to receive a bequest consisting of the unique negative collection of Professor K.A.C. Creswell, the eminent pioneer of medieval Islamic architectural history. Among the photographs are many of those used to illustrate the two publications which remain the basic research tools for scholars of medieval Islamic architecture: Creswell's Early Muslim Architecture, and Muslim Architecture of Egypt. 

The collection also includes large number of photographs intended for a third volume of Muslim Architecture of Egypt, which was to deal with the monuments of the Burji Mamluk period. Since this project remained unfinished at the time of Creswell's death, the bulk of these are unpublished.

Over the past decade the Ashmolean Museum has undertaken the printing, identification and digitisation of the Creswell Archive with the aim of making this exceptional collection available to a wider audience.

The subjects of the photographs range in place and date from al-Andalus to Iraq, from the late seventh century to the eighteenth. The greater part of the archive consists of images of the architecture of Egypt and the Levant between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Most were taken in the second quarter of this century.

Some of the buildings which Creswell photographed are no longer extant, others subsequently underwent drastic, and often poorly-documented campaignes of restoration. The photographs therefore provide an invaluable record for those interested in the history of the major monuments of the Islamic Middle East.

In addition, links are provided to the Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, which holds a collection of 2,706 Creswell prints now available online, via ArchNet, the website established at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in co-ordination with the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture.

Biography | Bibliography | Browse | Search | Acknowledgements | Copyright and Print Orders | Feedback

Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel

Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel

The Land of Israel has always attracted professional and amateur photographers. Over the years, archives, institutions and individuals have kept rare collections, documenting its unique views and people. The university's library operates for the digital conservation and documentation of these contents, in order to keep them from wearing out and to provide accessibility for education and research purposes.

In the website are photographs from various sources that were donated to the library's Digital Media Center.

The digital collection is part of the work done by the library of Haifa University. Its purpose is to expose and provide accessibility to historical photographs of the Land of Israel. The project started as cooperation with the department of Land of Israel Studies in Haifa University and Bitmuna project.

The library staff scans and catalogues the photographs. Identification of documented locations, people and events is done with the help of collection owners, information received from users, and the kind help of Mr. Roni Kenisberg.

The website allows access to the library's photographs collections according to theme, chronology or geography. It also allows access to the Digital Media Center's search options, where you can search freely for various materials.

All the photographs in the Historical Photographs of the Land of Israel website are available to the public, under fair use and copyright limitations.

We would be glad to have your response, as well as more information and identifications of photographs, to: dmc@univ.haifa.ac.il

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Pitt Rivers Museum: Sir Wilfred Thesiger Collection

Pitt Rivers Museum Prints

The Pitt Rivers Museum is the University of Oxford's museum of anthropology and world archaeology. Established in 1884, it is one of Europe's most important collections of ethnography, including one of the most significant collections of ethnographic photography. This website has been designed to give more people access to, and enjoyment of, images from the Museum's rich collections. More images will be added in due course, but we also welcome suggestions on what collections you would like to be made available.

Photographs by Sir Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) 1330 images in total

Open Access Images: Pattern in Islamic Art

"This website offers a FREE download of over 4000 images of patterns and other design features drawn from the rich cultural heritage of the Islamic world. Historically, the decorative arts have always formed a major part of Islamic aesthetic expression. Its remarkable achievements in this direction (much of which are represented here) make it an invaluable resource for designers of all kinds as well as for art-historians and art-lovers generally."

Pattern in Islamic Art

Open Access Photographs Collection: Abdul Hamid II Collection (Library of Congress)

Abdul Hamid II Collection (Library of Congress)

"This monumental collection portrays the Ottoman Empire during the reign of one of its last sultans, Abdul-Hamid II. The 1,819 photographs in 51 large-format albums date from about 1880 to 1893. They highlight the modernization of numerous aspects of the Ottoman Empire, featuring images of educational facilities and students; well-equipped army and navy personnel and facilities; technologically advanced lifesaving and fire fighting brigades; factories; mines; harbors; hospitals; and government buildings. Most of the places depicted are within the boundaries of modern-day Turkey, but buildings and sites in Iraq, Lebanon, Greece and other countries are also included."