LibGuides: Travelers to the Middle East: Visual Resources, Travel Guides, and Maps: Photographs and Postcards

Description

Featured below are links to photographic and postcard collections from and about the Middle East available at the AUB University Libraries as well as at other University libraries, institutes and foundations, in addition to a short bibliography of select monographs about photography in the region.

Photography and Travel: A symbiosis

“The impetus behind the great surge of interest in early photography of the Middle East has been the ever-widening search among scholars studying the region for new and novel data-bases to tap for research material, and the recent emergence of the history of photography as a distinct field of study within the discipline of art history, leading to the inevitable "re discovery" of the Middle East by photographic historians. While the first development is just catching fire, as more and more scholars go about the slow process of rediscovering photographic archives, the latter phenomenon has reached full growth […]. Much of this literature suffers from what I term "photomania," the parent disease of "calotypomania," which has recently been diagnosed by Abigail Solomon-Godeau. Photomania divests photographs of all meaning other than that of the aesthetic. The social and historical context of photographs is suppressed in favor of the all-embracing rubric of style, and the meaning of a photographic image is confined to the narrow limits of the print surface alone. Concern about content and context is abandoned, replaced by aesthetic contemplation and perfunctory gasps of wonder. The photographer is canonized as an artist, his photographs become an "œuvre," his work behind a camera, for however long or short or intermittent a time, is considered a career, and the purpose for which his photographs were originally taken and the use to which they were put is down played so a new generative principle can be supplied – an aesthetic one.” - PAUL E. CHEVEDDEN (CHEVEDDEN, PAUL E. “Making Light of Everything: Early Photography of the Middle East and Current Photomania.” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, vol. 18, no. 2, 1984, pp. 151–174. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41887989.)

Photograph Collections at the AUB Libraries, ASC

Aida Kanafani Zahar Photo Collection
228 photos from 1984 and 1998 which display most crafts and Lebanese folklore.
Asia Minor Photograph Collection, 1884-1887.
120 albumen prints photographs of landmarks in Cappadocia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Midas, Ayazin and Aleppo.
Blatchford Photograph Collection, 1880-1900.
801 photographs on the Middle East covering the period between 1880 to 1900.
Egyptian Theater Albums
20 albums, 743 black and white photos that include shots of films and plays produced between 1913 and 1960.
Flowers of the Holy Land Photo Album, 1900s.
12 black and white photos depicting landmarks of Palestine at the turn of the 20th century such as Bethlehem, Haifa, Mount Olivet, Mount Carmel, Grotto of Nativity.
The Karanis-Fayum Excavations Photo Album, 1924-1935
98 albumen prints photographs of landmarks in Karanis-Fayum; a Roman period town site in the Fayum region, Egypt.
Manoug Photo Collection, 1940-1990
The collection of around 20,000 images documents several geographic areas in the Middle East, Armenia and Canada it covers the period between 1940 and 1990.
Moore Photograph Collection (1892-1902)
Moore's collection includes photos Lebanon, Syria and Palestine.
Nahr Ibrahim Photo Collection, [1920]
27 black and white photos of landscapes of regions in Mount Lebanon, particularly Afqa Valley and cave.
The Palestine Archaeological Museum Photo Album, 1910-1976
29 albumen photographic prints of landmarks in Qumran, Palestine, and 2 postcards of Palestine archaeology Museum.
Qatar Petroleum Company Photograph Collection, 1950s-1960s.
41 black and white photographs by Qatar Petroleum Company (Q.P.C.) that depicts life in Qatar between the 1950s and 1960 with photos of Zubarah, Um Salal, Qatar airport, Abdullah bin Thani Mosque etc.
Richard Finnie Photograph Collection (1951)
52 black and white photographs, featuring cities, landscapes, factories, antiquities, etc.
Robert Black Photo Album, 1935-1937
289 black & white photographs of events and sceneries from Lebanon.
Sarrafian Brothers Photo Collection
Sarrafian Brother's collection available at the Archives and Special Collections Department at the AUB Libraries.
Saul Rosenberg Collection, 1932-1978.
1,432 photographs taken by Dr. Rosenberg himself mostly during his days at AUB Medical School, between 1932 and 1939.
Three American Sisters Photo Album, ca. 1900s
120 black & white and sepia-toned photographs taken in the Arabic part of Ottoman Empire, mainly Lebanon, depicting local peasantry, Local entertainment and horse racing, dignitaries addressing crowds, boating, village architecture, military processions.

Fouad Debbas (AUB Catalog)

Postcard albums published by Fouad Debbas available at the AUB Libraries.
Issa Iskandar Maalouf Postcard Collection

The Issa Iskandar Maalouf collection is available at the Archives and Special Collections Department at the AUB Libraries.
Sarrafian Brothers Postcard Collection, 1900-1935.

A collection of 58 sepia toned, black and white and color postcards, mostly taken by Sarrafian Brothers, chiefly depicting general campus views and shots of specific buildings in the Syrian Protestant College (SPC), former name of the American University of Beirut, between 1900 and 1935.
Postcards Catalog

This link offers a quick glimpse of the postcard-related AUB libraries catalog.
Palestine Postcard Collection (Columbia University)

Columbia University postcard collection from Palestine.

Digitized Photos and postcards collections from or about the ME at various institutions

Lebanon

Photographs and Postcards (Almashriq, Beirut)

Includes a collection of photographs and postcards from Lebanon in the period between ca. 1880 and ca. 1970
Photographs of Beirut (Levantine Heritage)

A collection of photos and postcards from Beirut in the early 20th century.
Levantine Mirage (Griffith Institute)

"19th-century 'studio' photographs of the Levant."
Postcards from Lebanon (Liban Postcard Collection)

Includes several postcards from Lebanon from 1900-1902.

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Syria

Photographs of Aleppo (Levantine Heritage)

A collection of photos and postcards from Aleppo in the early 20th century.
Photographs of Damascus (Levantine Heritage)

A collection of photos and postcards from Damascus in the early 20th century

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Palestine

Palestine Posters Collection (The Palestine Poster Project Archives)

"This library and teaching resource allows educators, students, scholars, and other parties interested in using the New Curriculum to incorporate Palestine posters into classroom learning activities."
Photographs of Jerusalem (Levantine Heritage)

A collection of photos and postcards from Jerusalem in the early 20th century.
Walid Khalidi Photo Collection of Palestine: Before their Diaspora (Palestinian Studies)

"A photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948, by Walid Khalidi."

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Middle East

Fez Photograph Album (Archnet)

"The Fez Photograph Album is a collection of black-and-white postcard proofs, which can be tentatively dated to 1920-1921."
Gardens of Sand Exhibition (Clark Worswick Collection of Photographs)

Includes a collection of photographs from the Middle East from 1859 to 1905.
Mediterranean Postcards (Archnet)

A collection of postcards from the Mediterranean.
Middle East Photography (Only Photography Collection)

A collection of photographs of the Middle East.
Middle East Postcard Collection (British Museum)

Includes the British Museum collection of postcards form the Middle East.
Nicholas V. Artamonoff Collection (The Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA))

Nicholas V. Artamonoff collection of photographs of Turkey dating from 1930 to 1947.
The Fouad Debbas Collection (Sursock Museum)

"The Fouad Debbas Collection is a photographic collection comprising over 30,000 images from the Middle East – namely Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Turkey – from 1830 till the 1960s."
The Middle East in Early Prints and Photographs (New York Digital Library)

The New York Public Library collection of images depicting the Middle East.

Photograph Collections Available at Other University Libraries

Félix Bonfils Photographs Collection (Princeton University)
"The collction consists of an open collection of photographs of images and people in the eastern Mediterranean taken by Bonfils during the second half of the 19th century and published by his Maison Bonfils studio in Beirut, Lebanon."
Matson Photo Collection
The Library of Congress collection of Matson (G. Eric and Edith) Photograph Collection.
Middle East Photograph Archive (University of Chicago Library)
"The Middle East Photograph Archive consists of about 400 photographs, most dating to the second half of the nineteenth century and produced by professional photographers. The images depict the monuments of the Middle East's medieval and ancient past as well as scenes of daily life in urban and rural locations."
Photographic Archives (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago)
Photographs documenting the Oriental Institute's excavation expeditions to the Middle East, captured by the Institute's photographers.
Richard B. Parker Photographs of Islamic Monuments 1965-1979 (Smithsonian)
"The Amb. Richard B. Parker Photographs contains 200 black and white prints, 481 black and white negatives, and two black and white contact sheets of Islamic monuments in Algeria, Cairo, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, and Spain."