The Myron Bement Smith collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. It contains substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Letters describe the milieu in which he operated in Rochester NY and New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s; the Smiths' life in Iran from 1933 to 1937; and the extensive network of academic and social contacts that Myron and Katharine developed and maintained over his lifetime. The Islamic Archives was a project to which Smith devoted most of his professional life. It includes both original materials, such as his photographs and notes, and items acquired by him from other scholars or experts on Islamic art and architecture. Smith intended the Archives to serve as a resource for scholars interested in the architecture and art of the entire Islamic world although he also included some materials about non-Islamic architecture.

Photographs and negatives of Sonia P. and Hans C. Seherr-Thoss. Mounted and unmounted color slides, transparencies, black and white negatives, mounted prints, contact sheets, and a photograph, circa 1960-1968. The majority of images, taken by Hans C. Seherr-Thoss, appear in their publication, Design and Color in Islamic Architecture: Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey, published by the, Smithsonian Institution Press, in 1968. Countries depicted are Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Ambassador Raymond A. Hare (1901-1994) created this collection to document the architecture, cities, and landscapes of the Middle East, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.A photograph album of 90 silver-gelatin photographs depicts minarets in Cairo, Egypt, with annotations in Arabic and English describing the date and title of each minaret. Two portfolios of photographs presented to Ambassador Hare in 1965 by the senior staff of the U.S. Agency for International Development Mission to Turkey to commemorate his service as Ambassador to Turkey from 1961-1965. Included are 52 matted photographs, many signed by the photographer Ara Guler and dated and captioned, documenting the art and architecture of the Seljuks and the Armenians at the Armenian center of Ani. The slides, 1930s - 1960s, created by Hare document Islamic architecture and people and place views of North Africa, Turkey, Egypt, and Syria.

The Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers, dating from approximately 1877-1947, measure 7.8 cubic feet and include writings and notes, photographs, and maps related to Dr. Aga-Oglu's work Corpus of Islamic Work, which was never published due to Dr. Aga-Oglu's death in 1949.

An outstanding scholar in the field of Iranian studies, Ernst Herzfeld (1879--1948) explored all phases of Near Eastern culture from the prehistoric period to Islamic times. This collection documents Herzfeld's excavations at Samarra, Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Aleppo and includes correspondence; field notebooks; drawings; sketchbooks; inventories of objects; "squeeze" copies of architectural details; and photographs.

The bulk of these papers document the professional life of Carol Kramer, a leading figure in ethnoarchaeology, specializing in the Middle East and South Asia. She was also a major advocate for the professional development of women in anthropology and archaeology. Dating 1943-2002, the collection includes field notes, writings, correspondence, daily planners, teaching files, photographs, sound recordings, maps, computer disks, and botanical specimens. Her ethnoarchaeological research in "Shahabad" (a.k.a. "Aliabad") in Iran and in Rajasthan, India is well-represented in the collection.

This collection is primarily the work of one individual, Donald Harvey Sultner, known professionally as Donald Sultner-Welles (1914-1981). The collection forms a written and visual record of Sultner's family, life, and career from 1913-1980. Its major strength is Sultner's photographic documentation of the world during his travels, ca. 1950-1980. W...

This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.

This accession consists of records documenting the planning and development of educational activities, workshops, special events, and other educational programs at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. In approximately 2007, the department was renamed Education and Public Programs, but it reverted back to the Department ...

Elizabeth Moynihan is an architectural historian and author, specializing in the study of Mughal gardens in India. This collection measures 7.13 linear feet and documents Elizabeth Moynihan's research of the Lotus Garden of Dholpur, the Jai Mahal Garden in Jaipur, Mehtab Bagh, and many other Mughal Gardens in India. It includes correspondence; fiel...