May is National Photography Month! The Fine Arts Library holds more than 150,000 photographs and slides documenting Islamic art and architecture, as well as ethnographic views that provide cultural context.
Middle East and Islamic Photographs Collections are strong in albumen silver prints produced by commercial studios in the second half of the 19th century. These images are complemented by the photographic output of the first generation of scholars of Islamic art history, such as K.A.C. Creswell and Ernst Herzfeld, taken with documentary intent.
Most prominent is the Harvard Semitic Museum Photographic Archives. Developed at the Semitic Museum between 1891 and 1992 and transferred to the Fine Arts Library in 1995, the archive includes more than 38,000 images in a variety of formats.
Turkey, Contantinople. Mosque of Santa Sophia. Robertson, James, 1813-1888, English [photographer] Albumenized salt print: Istanbul, Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofia Camii) 10” x 12”, 25.5 x 30.6 cm salted paper prints photographs Repository: Harvard Fine Arts Library, Special Collections 1851-1853 HOLLIS number: olvwork365432
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