Country Photograph File

National Museum of Asian Art

Object Details

sova.fsa.a.04_ref8137

GUID

Collection Creator: Smith, Myron Bement, 1897-1970

See more items in: Myron Bement Smith Collection; Myron Bement Smith Collection / Series 2: The Islamic Archives

Archival Repository: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Identifier: FSA.A.04, Subseries 2.6

Type: Archival materials

Collection Citation: The Myron Bement Smith Collection, FSA A.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith.

Collection Rights: Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Scope and Contents note: Myron Bement Smith (MBS) accumulated a large collection of photographs from gifts, purchase or by copying photographs or negatives borrowed from friends and colleagues. The collection is highly eclectic, including many photographs that have little obvious relation to an Islamic or architectural subject. Photographs include socio-cultural information on Iran and other Islamic societies, some dating from the 1920s and 1930s, but the main focus is Islamic monuments. The collection includes photographs of some monuments at different points in time. In addition to Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are also well-represented. One of the most notable collections is the glass plate negatives taken by Persian photographer Antoin Sevruguin in the late 19th century; MBS purchased these for the Islamic Archives from the American Presbyterian Mission in Tehran. They are housed separately as the Antoin Sevruguin Collection [Subseries 2.12]. Some collections are incomplete; photographs may not have been printed or may have been misplaced. Copy negatives exist for many collections [Subseries 3.4]. MBS identified each picture by country, monument or subject, donor and its Islamic Archives accession number. He may have planned to arrange the photographs by country and topic but either the plan was not completed or subsequent events resulted in its disorganization. Some photographs were in folders by country but many were in groups labeled by donor or in unlabeled envelopes and boxes. MBS assigned each collection an accession number with information on photographer or provider (not always the same), the subject matter and a date. Sometimes the date refers to when the photographs were taken but at other times it is evidently the date of the transaction with MBS. The record does not always specify. MBS also corresponded with many of his donors and additional information about photographs might be found in their letters. [Subseries 1.4] The information in the accessions list naming the countries covered does not always match the photographs; possibly not all photographs were kept or mistakes were made in recording the information. For convenience, the country photograph file is now arranged according to its Islamic Archives accession number. Several photographic collections do not have accessions numbers; these are arranged alphabetically by donor after the numbered collections. [For more information on the Islamic Archives alphanumeric accession number system and individual collections, see Subseries 2.1]