Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Foreign Missions Library Lantern Slide Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
FSA.A1991.04
Creators:
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
Dates:
undated
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
98 Lantern slides
black and white and color
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Lantern slides, undated, some hand-tinted, assembled by the Foreign Missions Library of New York City to document missionary activities in Iran, probably during the early part of the twentienth century. Included are images of missionaries and evangelists, Fiske seminary, The American High School for Boys in Tehran, the Memorial School for Boys in Tabriz, the Red Cross, orphans, place views and architecture, a house interior, daily activities such as rug weaving and plowing, livestock, and people such as Kurdish women and a dervish. The slides are hand-colored and black and white, and many are captioned.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Images divided into the following section: market scenes, daily living, carpets, missionaries, the Red Cross, hospitals, schools, orphans, pre-Islamic rock reliefs, buildings, railroads, city views, villages, caravans and caravansaries, animals, farmers and fields, mountains, women and men.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
The Iran Mission was established by the U.S. Presbyterian Board of Mission in 1870, taking over the work of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Hundreds of the organization's missionaries were stationed in Iran. The first missionary to arrive was Justin Perkins (1805-1869), active in Persia from 1835 to 1869, establishing the Nestorian Mission at Urmia. Samuel Martin Jordan (1871-1952) arrived in Iran in 1898 and spent 43 years there, establishing among other institutions the Alborz High School (American College of Tehran). The Mission's functions were transferred to the Evangelical Church of Iran in 1965, until missionaries were ultimately removed from the country in 1969.

Administration

Custodial History
Donated by Alan O. Bellak, 1991

Digital Content


Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Citation
Foreigh Missions Library Lantern Slide Collection, FSA A1991.04 National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Conditions Governing Use
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

More Information

Local Numbers

Local Numbers
FSA A1991.04


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Missionaries -- Iran Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New York (N.Y.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Iran Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Tehran (Iran) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Lantern slides Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Iran -- Tehran -- Tehran Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Red Cross Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
National Museum of Asian Art Archives
Washington, D.C. 20013
Business Number: 202-633-0533
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