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Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers

Creator:
Aga-Oglu, Mehmet, 1896-1949  Search this
Extent:
10.7 Cubic feet (consisting of 18 boxes and 9 oversized flat file folders.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Maps
Photographs
Notes
Place:
Detroit (Mich.)
Turkey
Istanbul (Turkey)
Berlin (Germany)
Michigan
Date:
1877-1947
bulk circa 1945
Summary:
The Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers include writings and notes, photographs, and maps related to Dr. Aga-Oglu's work Corpus of Islamic Metalwork, which was never published due to Dr. Aga-Oglu's death in 1949.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Mehmet Aga-Oglu largely relate to Aga-Oglu's research and writings for his unpublished work Corpus of Islamic Metalwork. The papers include manuscript drafts, research files, printed material, maps, and photographs.

The manuscript drafts include handwritten drafts, citations attached or written onto drafts, and revision notes for his unpublished manuscript. Content includes material related to metalliferous mines, precious and base metals, and traffic of metals in Islamic and non-Islamic countries, as well as unlabeled writings related to astrolabes and synthetic protective coatings for metals.

Research material represents a majority of the records, and consists of accumulated research notes, citation lists, and object sketches. Subjects of the research material are related to metallurgy, iconography, metals commonly used in metalwork, geology and mining, and histories of metalwork in ranging locations or eras.

Printed material contains published articles from periodicals, a bulletin from the Detroit Institute of Arts, catalogues of scholarly publications available for purchase, and reviews of Aga-Oglu's published works.

Graphic materials present in the collection include maps depicting areas such as the Middle East, the northern Arabian Peninsula, and Northern India during different eras, and hand traced maps with marked metalliferous mine locations; and a substantial number of photographs of objects and artworks.
Arrangement:
The Mehmet Aga-Oglu papers are arranged in five series.

Series 1: Manuscript Drafts

Series 2: Research Files

Series 3: Printed Material

Series 4: Maps

Series 5: Photographs
Biographical Note:
Dr. Mehmet Aga-Oglu was an Islamic art historian and professor born on August 4, 1896 at Erivan in Russia Caucasia.

In 1916, Aga-Oglu was awarded a Doctor of Letters in the history, philosophy, and languages of Islamic countries from the University of Moscow. Following his graduation, Aga-Oglu traveled through Turkistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Asia Minor studying Islamic art. Aga-Oglu returned to academia in 1921 at the University of Istanbul where he studied the history of Islam and the Ottoman Empire.

During his time as a student at the University of Istanbul, he traveled extensively to European universities as a part of his program of study. This included studying Near Eastern art and architecture under Dr. Ernst Herzfeld in Berlin; classical and early Christian archaeology and Western art at the University of Jena; and completing his art history studies in Vienna. Aga-Oglu was awarded a Ph.D in philosophy in 1926.

Aga-Oglu was appointed curator by the Department of the National Museum in Istanbul in 1927. In 1929, the city of Detroit recruited Aga-Oglu to build the Department of Near Eastern Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1933, he was appointed as Chair of the History of Islamic Art at the University of Michigan. He joined the university first as a Freer Fellow and Lecturer and then later became a professor.

Aga-Oglu's accomplishments during his tenure included representing the University of Michigan and the Detroit Institute of Arts at the Millennium Celebration of Firdausi and the Congress of Orientalists in Tehran in 1934; organizing an exhibition of Islamic art at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco in 1937; founding and serving as editor of the periodical Ars Islamica; and serving as a Visiting Professor at the Summer Seminar of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Princeton University in 1935 and 1938.

Following his departure from the University of Michigan in 1938, Aga-Oglu primarily focused on research and writing. His publications include Persian Bookbindings of the Fifteenth Century, History of Islamic Art, and Safawid Rugs and Textiles. From 1948 to 1949, Aga-Oglu consulted for the Textile Museum in Washington D.C.

Beginning in 1940, Aga-Oglu planned, researched, and wrote drafts of his unpublished work Corpus of Islamic Metalwork. His project was intended to be a multi-volume work, but was not completed. Aga-Oglu died on July 4, 1949.
Related Materials:
Aga-Oglu, Mehmet. Mehmet Aga-Oglu collection. The Arthur D. Jenkins Library at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, Washington, DC.
Provenance:
Donated by Dr. Kamer Aga-Oglu in 1959.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the National Museum of Asian Art's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Topic:
Art, Islamic  Search this
Art metal-work, Islamic  Search this
Genre/Form:
Maps
Photographs
Notes
Citation:
Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers. FSA.A.10. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Dr. Kamer Aga-Oglu, 1959.
Identifier:
FSA.A.10
See more items in:
Mehmet Aga-Oglu Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3ff787517-13d1-43f7-a21f-1b37c856ca4e
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-10

Mughal Garden Project Drawings and Photographs

Extent:
5 Linear feet
Container:
Folder 2-4, 6
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Drawings
Photographs
Place:
Lahore (Pakistan)
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
These materials are related to the joint research project with the Smithsonian and the Pakistan Department of Archaeology entitled, "Garden, City, and Empire: The Historical Geography of Mughal Lahore." This project explored the spatial layout of garden sites and their geographic relationships with the broader urban context. There are various draft map and diagrams. There is also a watercolor painting.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.03
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Genre/Form:
Drawings
Photographs
Citation:
Mughal Garden Project Drawings and Photographs. FSA.A.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A.03
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3b1e339c2-055a-4b3a-bf89-620e807cb121
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-03
Online Media:

Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, Photographs

Photographer:
Xunling, 1874-1943  Search this
Names:
Cixi, Empress dowager of China, 1835-1908  Search this
Der Ling, Princess, 1885-1944  Search this
Guangxu, Emperor of China, 1871-1908  Search this
Li, Lianying, 1848-1911  Search this
Wanrong, 1906-1946  Search this
Xunling, 1874-1943  Search this
Extent:
44 Items
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Glass negatives
Place:
China -- History -- Qing dynasty, 1644-1912
China
Beijing (China)
Yihe Yuan (Beijing, China)
Forbidden City (Peking, China)
China -- Beijing -- Beijing
Date:
circa 1903-1905
Scope and Contents:
Cixi (慈禧太后), Empress Dowager of China, 1835-1908, Photographs. Forty-four glass plate negatives depicting the Empress Dowager of China, Cixi of the Qing dynasty, taken between 1903 to 1905 by the photographer Xunling (勋龄; ca.1880-1943). Scenes include the empress dowager on the imperial barge, in the Summer Palace (颐和园) with attendants, and individual portraits of Cixi in varieties of court attire. Other important figures of the royal court depicted are Empress Longyu (隆裕皇后; 1868 - 1913), Jinfei ((瑾妃; 1874 - 1924), Princess Der Ling (德龄公主; 1885 - 1944), Rongling (容龄;1882-1973), Lady Yugeng (裕太太), first chief eunuch Li Lianying (李連英; 1848 -1911), and second chief eunuch Cui Yugui (崔玉贵). The negatives were at one time in the possession of Xunling's sister, Princess Der Ling, who used many of them to illustrate her books on Cixi and the imperial Qing court. The collection includes thirty-five original glass plate negatives by Xunling and nine glass plate negatives copied from various sources, likely made for illustrations in Princess Der Ling's books and articles. Included in the acquisitions file is a 4 page typed essay by Lydia Dan (d. 2005), Xunling's niece, which identifies Xunling as the original photographer and describes the history of the photographs and anecdotes relating to Xunling and his family.
Arrangement:
The photographs are divided into four groups:
1. Twenty-four large negatives, 24.1 x 17.8 cm (SC-GR-243 to SC-GR-265; unnumbered). Original photographs by Xunling taken in the Forbidden City or the Summer Palace .
2. Eleven smaller negatives, 12.7 x 10.2 cm. (SC-GR-270-272; 276-277; 279-284). Mostly informal portraits of Cixi and the court taken with a more portable camera.
3. Nine smaller negatives, 12.7 x 10.2 cm. (SC-GR-266-269; 273-275; 278; 285). These are copies of prints from other sources, possibly taken for Xunling's sister, the Princess Der Ling to illustrate her English language books and magazine articles. SC-GR-275 is a copy from a worn, damaged print of a famous Xunling photograph. SC-GR-285 is copied from a poor print of SC-GR-265. SC-GR-278 is a detail copied from SC-GR-261.
4. SC-GR-285a is a print of a group of Han Chinese women.
Local Numbers:
FSA A.13
Provenance:
Purchase. 1966 A.13
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Topic:
Photography -- China  Search this
Empresses  Search this
Palaces  Search this
Eunuchs  Search this
Genre/Form:
Glass negatives
Citation:
Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, Photographs. FSA.A.13. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A.13
See more items in:
Cixi, Empress Dowager of China, Photographs
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc31c72b86a-f8a8-4c41-a4f9-c8584d6c9de7
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-13
Online Media:

Myron Bement Smith Collection

Creator:
Smith, Myron Bement, 1897-1970  Search this
Names:
Aga-Oglu, Mehmet, 1896-1949  Search this
Ettinghausen, Richard  Search this
Field, Henry  Search this
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Kuban, Dogan  Search this
Moe, Henry Allen  Search this
Pope, Arthur Upham, 1881-1969  Search this
Former owner:
Blake, Marion Elizabeth  Search this
Extent:
192 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1910-1970
Summary:
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.
Scope and Contents:
The Myron Bement Smith Collection consists of two parts, the papers of Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine and the Islamic Archives. The papers include some biographic material about Myron but little about his wife. Information on his academic and professional experience is sketchy and his diaries and appointment books often contain only sporadic entries. The papers contain substantial material about his field research in Italy in the 1920s and his years working on Islamic architecture in Iran in the 1930s. Correspondence comprises the largest and most potentially useful part of the papers. 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, formally entitled The Archive for Islamic Culture and Art, 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. Most of the latter consists of photographs and slides. 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. The core collection of the Archives consists of Smith's original photographs and architectural sketches of Iranian Islamic monuments made during his field research in the 1930s. He meticulously photographed the interior and exterior of monuments, including their decorative detail. Some of the photographic materials subsequently loaned, purchased, or donated to the Archives may enable scholars to document sites over time but in many cases the materials are poorly preserved or reproduced. A notable exception to this is the glassplate negatives and prints of 19th century Iranian photographer Antoin Sevruguin.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 2 major series with further subseries. A third series inventories the outsized and miscellaneous materials.

Series 1: Papers

Subseries 1.1: Biographic Materials

Subseries 1.2: Professional Experience

Subseries 1.3: Notebooks, Journals and Appointment Books

Subseries 1.4: Correspondence

Subseries 1.5: Published and Unpublished Materials

Subseries 1.6: Italy Research 1925, 1927-1928

Subseries 1.7: Iran Research 1933-1937

Subseries 1.8: Katharine Dennis Smith Papers and Correspondence

Series 2: The Islamic Archives

Subseries 2.1: Islamic Archives History, Collection Information

Subseries 2.2: Resource Materials Iran

Subseries 2.3: Resource Materials Other Islamic World and General

Subseries 2.4: Myron Bement Smith Architectural Sketches, Plans and Notes, Iran, 1933-1937

Subseries 2.5: Myron Bement Smith Iran Photographs, Notebooks and Negative Registers

Subseries 2.6: Country Photograph File

Subseries 2.7: Lantern Slide Collection

Subseries 2.8: Myron Bement Smith 35 mm Color Slides

Subseries 2.9: Country 35 mm Color Slide File

Subseries 2.10: Myron Bement Smith Negatives

Subseries 2.11: Country Photograph Negatives

Subseries 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs

Series 3: Outsize and Miscellaneous Items

Subseries 3.1: Map Case Drawers

Subseries 3.2: Rolled Items

Subseries 3.3 Items in Freezer

Subseries 3.4 Smithsonian Copy Negatives
Biographical Note:
Myron Bement Smith was born in Newark Valley, New York in 1897 and grew up in Rochester, New York. He died in Washington D.C. in 1970. He showed an early interest in drawing, and after graduation from high school, he worked as a draftsman for a Rochester architect. He served in the US Army Medical Corps in France during World War I and on return again worked as an architectural draftsman. He studied at Yale University from 1922 to 1926, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. During summer vacations, he worked as draftsman or designer for architectural firms in New York City. After graduation, he received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation grant and spent two years in Italy doing research on northern Italian brick and stone work. He used photography as an tool for his research and published several well-illustrated articles. On return he joined an architectural firm in Philadelphia and in 1931 became a registered architect in New York. He enrolled in Harvard University graduate school in 1929 pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree.

In April 1930, Smith was appointed Secretary of the newly created American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology founded by Arthur Upham Pope and located in New York City. He had no prior academic or work experience in Islamic art or architecture, and his job entailed designing publications, arranging lectures, organizing exhibitions and fund raising. That summer he arranged an independent study course at Harvard University on Persian art and subsequently studied Persian language at Columbia University and attended graduate courses at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. His work and academic credentials enabled him to compete successfully for a research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies in 1933 to study Iranian Islamic architecture.

Accompanied by his new bride Katharine Dennis, Smith left for Iran in 1933. They suffered a horrendous motor vehicle accident in Iraq en route and required a lengthy recuperation in Lebanon and Cyprus. The Smiths eventually arrived in Isfahan, Iran, where they established their "Expedition House," as Smith called it, in a rented faculty house at Stuart College. Smith's research consisted of meticulous photographic documentation of Islamic monuments and architectural sketches and drawings of many of them. He concentrated on the Isfahan area but also documented monuments elsewhere in Iran. Smith outfitted his station wagon as a combination camper and research vehicle in which he and his staff traveled widely. Katharine sometimes traveled with him but generally she remained in Isfahan managing the household and logistics for the "expedition." The Smiths left Iran in 1937.

Smith published several articles about Iran's Islamic monuments based on his field research and in 1947 completed his PhD thesis for The Johns Hopkins University on the vault in Persian architecture. His professional career from 1938 until his death in 1970 consisted of a series of temporary academic positions, contract work and government or academic sponsored lecture tours and photographic exhibits. He had a long lasting relationship with the Library of Congress where he served as an Honorary Consultant from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1948 to 1970; from 1943 to 1944 he was Chief of the Iranian Section at the Library. Despite his lack of published material, Smith was well-known among academic, government and private citizens who worked, traveled or were otherwise interested Iran and the Islamic world.

Smith developed an extensive network of professional and social contacts that dated from his early student days and increased markedly during his time at the Persian Institute and later in Iran. He kept in touch with them and they touted him to others who were interested in Iran or Islamic art and architecture. This network served him well in realizing his ambition of creating a resource for scholars that relied on photographs to document Islamic architecture. The Islamic Archives began with his own collection of photographs from his Iran research and grew to include all manner of photographic and other materials not only on the Islamic world but also other areas. Creating and managing the Archives became the main focus of Smith's professional life and career. In 1967 he received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to revise his PhD thesis as a publishable manuscript but died before he could complete it.
Related Materials:
The Antoin Sevruguin Photgraphs

Ernst Herzfeld Papers

Lionel B. Bier Drawings

Lionel D. Bier and Carol Bier Photographs
Provenance:
Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, transfered from National Anthropological Archives.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Islamic architecture  Search this
Islamic Architecture-Turkey  Search this
Iran-description and travel  Search this
Iran-History 20th Century  Search this
Islamic Architecture-Middle East  Search this
Iran-social life and customs  Search this
United States-Social life and customs  Search this
Mosques  Search this
Architecture -- Iran  Search this
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.
Identifier:
FSA.A.04
See more items in:
Myron Bement Smith Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3c8c950fe-250b-40df-b8c7-bcf788073968
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-04
Online Media:

Pauline B. and Myron S. Falk, Jr. Papers

Creator:
Falk, Johnny, 1906-1992  Search this
Falk, Pauline  Search this
Names:
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee  Search this
Asia House Gallery  Search this
Bennington College  Search this
Brooklyn Museum  Search this
Chinese Art Society of America  Search this
Columbia University. Teachers College. Lincoln School  Search this
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York  Search this
Japan Society (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
National Refugee Service (U.S.)  Search this
Pan American World Airways, Inc.  Search this
Baerwald, Paul, 1871-1961  Search this
David, Percival, Sir, 1892-1964  Search this
Lawton, Thomas, 1931-  Search this
Pope, John Alexander, 1906-1982  Search this
Salmony, Alfred, 1890-1958  Search this
Sickman, L. C. S. (Laurence C. S.)  Search this
Stern, Harold P.  Search this
Wenley, A. G. (Archibald Gibson), 1898-1962  Search this
Extent:
25 Cubic feet
Culture:
Jewish American  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Correspondence
Photographs
Diaries
Maps
Place:
China -- Description and Travel
China
USA -- New York -- New York
Date:
1910-2002
bulk 1935-2000
Scope and Contents:
Papers of art collectors Pauline Baerwald Falk (1910-2000) and Myron Samuel (Johnny) Falk Jr. (1906-1992). This collection includes correspondence; art collection documentation; research materials; photographs (slides and prints) and audiovisual materials; financial information; biographical data; records of philanthropic and social activities; travel records; and appointment books.
Arrangement:
Organized into five series: • Series 1: Biographic Materials • Series 2: Travel • Series 3: Correspondence • Series 4: Collection Files • Series 5: Slides
Biographical / Historical:
Pauline Baerwald was born in New York City in 1910, living there until her death in 2000. In 1932 she graduated from Smith College and went on to the School of Social Work at Columbia University. Pauline's father, Paul Baerwald, was a German-Jewish banker and philanthropist, as well as an executive board member of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), an agency chartered to provide refugee services for European Jews who were victims of persecution throughout Russia and Europe. Pauline was an active volunteer with the JDC throughout World War II. After the war she was one of the founders of the National Refuge Service (later the New York Association for New Americans) as well as the Jewish Social Service Association. She also served as president of the Jewish Family Services, a predecessor agency of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. In 1935 Pauline Baerwald married Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., and raised three children: Patricia, Michael and Nancy. Pauline, with support from Johnny, was a founder of the New Lincoln School in Manhattan, having attended the Lincoln School as a child. They maintained connection to charitable social work throughout their lives.

Myron "Johnny" S. Falk, Jr., son of Myron S. Falk, was born in New York City in 1906. In 1928 he earned a degree at Yale and a B.S. in Engineering from MIT in 1929. During World War II Johnny was a commissioned officer in the army, posted to the Pentagon ordinance section, applying his engineering and management skills to the task of munitions production. The family moved to Washington, D.C. during the war. In addition to his professional career as an investment banker with Ralph E. Samuels and Co., Johnny was a director of the New York Foundation and Hebrew Technical Institute. He was a board member of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and Bennington College.

Pauline and Johnny were both introduced to Chinese art early in life. Johnny's father collected Chinese porcelain to decorate his New York home. In keeping with the taste of the times, most of his pieces were Kangxi blue and white porcelains. On his sixtieth birthday he divided his porcelains among his three children. Several years later Johnny and his sister, Mildred, gave many of those Kangxi porcelains to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to be permanently installed, together with many other porcelains, to re-create the original appearance of the Whistler Peacock Room.

Pauline was introduced to Chinese art by her uncle, Emil Baerwald, who took her to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Bishop Collection and on visits to Yamanaka and Company on Fifth Avenue, where Mr. Shirai would take them into the private rooms to see the rarest pieces. Emil Baerwald lived in Europe, and, as an active collector of Chinese ceramics, he became acquainted with leading Chinese art collectors there, including George Eumorfopoulos and Sir Percival David. He provided introductions to collectors when Pauline and Johnny visited England in 1950.

In 1937 Pauline and Johnny made their first trip to China on Pan Am's Clipper, flying from San Francisco to Manila. It was during their first visit to China that Johnny and Pauline began buying early Chinese pottery and works of art. Pauline referred to this trip as the one trip that formed their collection. On this flight they met K.C. Chung, a consultant and friend for years to come. Pauline's uncle, Ernst Baerwald, lived in Tokyo and was well connected in the arts. Through his introductions they met significant art dealers, including Mathias Komor, who became an advisor to them.

Pauline and Johnny were contributors the founding of many Asian art organizations in America during the years following World War II and the Korean War. They participated in the establishment of the Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America in 1945, a scholarly journal which was renamed Archives of Asian Art in 1966 and continues publication today.

Pauline and Johnny were strong supporters of the Asia Society, where Johnny was a trustee. In 1971 they were among the first participants in the Japan Society and were founding members of the Friends of Japan House Gallery. Johnny was also a trustee of the Research Laboratory of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1966 until his death. In 1950 Pauline and Johnny attended a meeting of the Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS) of London, and a few years later Johnny became the OCS representative in North America, a post he held for more than thirty years.

Johnny Falk died in 1992 and Pauline Baerwald Falk passed away in 2000, the same year the collection of approximately 700 items was assigned to Christie's.
Provenance:
Gift of the Falk family.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Occupation:
Philanthropists  Search this
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945  Search this
Bronzes, Chinese  Search this
Ceramics -- China  Search this
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Genre/Form:
Correspondence
Photographs
Diaries -- 20th century
Maps -- 20th century
Citation:
Pauline B. and Myron S. Falk, Jr. Papers, FSA.A2002.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Falk family.
Identifier:
FSA.A2002.03
See more items in:
Pauline B. and Myron S. Falk, Jr. Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc35440acda-af34-4172-9ab4-0a564fcfb41f
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2002-03
Online Media:

Photograph of Ladies of the Beijing Legations

Extent:
1 Item (photographic print, Silver gelatin print, 8 x 10.5 in.)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Place:
China
Beijing (China)
Date:
January 1902
Scope and Contents:
A large print, showing a group of men, women and children standing before a Western-style building. On the back, captioned originally in pencil is "Photograph taken in Front of American Legation Peking China of the ladies and children of the Diplomatic Corps in January 1902 before going to the Audience of the Emperor and Empress Dowager of China." The rest of the caption is a complete list of the individuals.
北京
Arrangement:
Single item
Biographical / Historical:
The Legations women first visited the palace on January 1st, following the return of the Empress and Empress Dowager from exile. Pictured in the first row at center is Sarah Pike Conger, the wife of the American Minister to Beijing, and doyen of the legation women. This print was likely a gift to family members from the wife of the Italian ambassador, the Baroness Romano Avezzana (pictured in the front row, far left),
Local Numbers:
FSA A2010.06
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Diplomacy  Search this
Embassies  Search this
Qing dynasty, 1644-1912  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Citation:
Photograph of Ladies of the Beijing Legations, FSA.A2010.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Dr. Thomas Lawton, 2010.
Identifier:
FSA.A2010.06
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3e54a043f-c104-4e00-bc43-5733c0dcd356
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2010-06
Online Media:

John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers

Creator:
Ferguson, John Calvin, 1866-1945  Search this
Names:
Ferguson, John Calvin, 1866-1945  Search this
Extent:
6.4 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Letters (correspondence)
Newspaper clippings
Photographs
Photograph albums
Speeches
Place:
Shanghai (China)
China
Nanjing (Jiangsu Sheng, China)
Date:
circa 1850s-1988
bulk 1900-1945
Summary:
The John Calvin Ferguson Family papers measure 6.4 linear feet, and date from circa 1850s to 1988, with the bulk dating from 1900 to 1945. The bulk of the papers consists of John Calvin Ferguson's personal, professional, and family correspondence, and correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family. The papers also include biographical materials; sermons, speeches, and writings by Ferguson and others; printed materials, both collected and given to Ferguson; and photographs, including five photograph albums.
Scope and Contents:
The John Calvin Ferguson Family papers measure 6.4 linear feet, and date from circa 1850s to 1988, with the bulk dating from 1900 to 1945. The bulk of the papers consists of John Calvin Ferguson's personal, professional, and family correspondence, and correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family. The papers also include biographical materials; sermons, speeches, and writings by Ferguson and others; printed materials, both collected and given to Ferguson; and photographs, including five photograph albums.

Biographical materials includes various business cards and professional contacts; an ink sketch portrait of Ferguson by Li Yuling; various membership documents and cards; memorial service and obituary materials for Ferguson and members of the Ferguson family; repatriation documentation and materials from the M. S. Gripsholm; and assorted genealogical and family documents.

Correspondence comprises the bulk of the collection, and is both professional and personal in nature. Much of John Calvin Ferguson's correspondence documents his activities and movements while living in China, as well as the state of the political and social climate during the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 and as the Second Sino-Japan War begins in 1937. His journey back to the United States aboard the M. S. Gripsholm, as well as his failing health, are also much discussed topics. Extensive correspondence between other members of the Ferguson family are also found within the papers, including Ferguson's wife, Mary Elizabeth Wilson, and his children.

Sermons, speeches, and writings reflect Ferguson's many career interests, including his work as a minister, education administrator, and as an ambassador with the Chinese government. The collection also contains printed materials and photographs, including five photograph albums.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 6 series.

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1915-1981 [Box 1, 1 OV Folder; 0.5 linear feet]

Series 2: John Calvin Ferguson Correspondence, 1902-circa 1945 [Boxes 1-7; 2.2 linear feet]

Series 3: Ferguson Family Correspondence, 1886-1982 [Boxes 7-12; 2.1 linear feet]

Series 4: Sermons, Speeches, and Writings, 1896-1988 [Boxes 12-13; 0.3 linear feet]

Series 5: Printed Material, 1896-1988 [Boxes 13-14; 0.4 linear feet]

Series 6: Photographs, circa 1850s-1967 [Boxes 14-17; 0.9 linear feet]
Biographical / Historical:
John Calvin Ferguson (1866-1945) was an author, collector and scholar of Chinese art, Methodist minister, university president, and Chinese government advisor, born in Napanee, Ontario.

Ferguson attended Albert College in Ontario, received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1886 from Boston University, and was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church shortly thereafter. He received his PhD from Boston University in 1902. In 1887, he married Mary Elizabeth Wilson (1866-1938) and was sent to China as a Methodist missionary, where he spent his first year studying Chinese in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, downriver from Nanjing on the Yangzi. In Nanjing, Ferguson helped found the Methodist school, Huiwen Shuyuan (later Nanjing University), and worked to establish a western curriculum with departments of liberal arts, medicine, and theology. He was the first president of the university, as well as treasurer and then superintendent of the Central China Mission until 1897, when he left the ministry.

In 1897, Qing official Sheng Xuanhuai (1847-1916) invited Ferguson to become first president of Nanyang College at Shanghai, where he worked for five years before leaving his position to assist Sheng with his governmental duties. Ferguson then became a member of the Treaty Commission and foreign secretary to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce in 1902, and chief secretary of the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration a year later until 1905. Concurrently, he was foreign advisor to the Viceroys of Nanjing and Wuchang. While in Shanghai, he was Honorary Secretary of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and editor of the Journal from 1902 to 1911, then becoming president for a year. During his last year in Shanghai, he was Chairman of the Famine Relief Commission until moving to Beijing in 1911 to become foreign secretary to the Ministry of Posts and Communications. He remained in Beijing after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, becoming active in the Red Cross and subsequently Vice President of the Red Cross Society.

In Shanghai, Ferguson developed a popular Chinese-language daily newspaper in 1899, Sin Wan Pao, which he owned until 1929. He began collecting Chinese art objects while in Nanjing, and studied Chinese art and literature in earnest while in Beijing. In 1912, Ferguson became a buyer of Chinese art objects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, becoming a fellow in perpetuity and honorary fellow in recognition of his work. He was then wholly launched into the collecting field, becoming a dealer of Chinese art, working between collectors and vendors in Peking for American museums and individuals, as well as developing his own collection. After being appointed advisor to the new Chinese Republican government in 1915, he traveled between the United States and China until setting up permanent residence with his family in Beijing in 1919. During this time in Beijing he wrote and lectured extensively on Chinese art and archaeology. He ultimately donated the bulk of his personal collection, over one thousand Chinese art objects, to Nanjing University in 1934 for which he received an official thanks by public mandate from the Chinese government. Other gifts of his collection were made to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

He remained in his Beijing home until 1943 when he returned to the United States with his daughter, Mary, via the M. S. Gripsholm. He died in Clifton Springs, New York on August 3, 1945.

This biography draws heavily from Lara Jaishree Netting's book, A Perpetual Fire: John C. Ferguson and His Quest for Chinese Art and Culture, Hong Kong University Press, 2013; and R. H. Van Gulik's article, "Dr. John c. Ferguson's 75th Anniversary," Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies of the Catholic University of Peking, Vol. VI, 1941.

Genealogy Chart, Ferguson FamilyJohn Calvin Ferguson, m. Mary Elizabeth Wilson -- Luther Mitchell, m. Edith GrayHelen Matilda 1) m. George E. Tucker2) m. John C. BeaumontAlice MaryFlorence Wilson 1) m. Jay C. Huston2) m. Raymond C. MackayCharles John, m. Isabel M. MarindinMary EstherRobert Mason, m. Margaret SparrDuncan PomeroyPeter Blair, m. Elizabeth Hamlen
Provenance:
The John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers were donated to the Archives by Ferguson's grandson, Peter Ferguson, in 1999.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Occupation:
Political consultants -- China  Search this
Art collectors -- China  Search this
Genre/Form:
Letters (correspondence) -- 20th century.
Newspaper clippings
Letters (correspondence) -- 19th century
Photographs
Photograph albums
Speeches
Citation:
John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers, FSA A1999.33. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. Gift of Peter Ferguson.
Identifier:
FSA.A1999.33
See more items in:
John Calvin Ferguson Family Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc311330381-7f7a-4ab7-9be6-872334e2c42d
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1999-33
Online Media:

Loo Family Photographs

Creator:
Loo, C. T. & Co.  Search this
Names:
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre  Search this
Extent:
52 Photographs (black and white silver gelatin prints)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Black-and-white photographic prints
Place:
France
Paris (France)
Beijing (China)
France -- Ile-de-France -- Paris
Date:
undated
Scope and Contents:
Fifty two photographic prints relating to the Asian art dealer C.T. Loo. Photographs feature interior and exterior views of Loo's Paris gallery, showing important works of art, many of which were later acquired by museums and private collections of Europe and the US. Also included are formal portraits and informal snapshots of Loo, his family and associates in Paris and Beijing.
北京
Arrangement:
Photographs are numbered individually with no attempt to organize by subject.
Biographical / Historical:
The photographs document the gallery, C.T. Loo et Cie, known as the Pagoda (renovated 1926-1928, currently a designated historical site in Paris) of the leading internateal dealer of Chinese art C.T. Loo (1880-1957). Well known to art experts around the world, the gallery attracted the attention of the renowned art historian Osvald Siren, who wrote an article in 1928 on this gallery, focusing on the murals. Many of the objects shown in the gallery can be identified as important pieces in major American and European museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Nelson-Atkins Gallery, Kansas City, and the Musee Guimet, Paris. Loo was instrumental in introducing some of the most important bronzes, jades, and stone sculptures to the Freer Gallery of Art between 1915 and 1951. This collection holds an added significance because it comes from Janine Loo Pierre-Emmanuel (1920-2013), daughter of C. T. Loo, and ex-wife of Jean-Pierre Dubosc, the prominent Sinologist, collector and dealer of Chinese art. Mme. Pierre-Emmanuel, a well-known dealer in the post-war era, was in contact with important scholars, collectors and dealers, such as Pierre Teillard de Chardin, Laurence Sickman, Grenville L. Winthrop, Arthur M. Sackler, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, and J. T. Tai. In addition to Chinese art, the gallery interior views show pieces from South and Southeast Asia
Local Numbers:
FSA A2010.07
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art -- China  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1900-1950
Citation:
Loo Family Photographs. FSA.A2010.07. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Janine Loo Pierre-Emmanuel, 2010.
Identifier:
FSA.A2010.07
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3806be1c4-aa51-4b35-b3e5-f5f717c3f30a
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2010-07
Online Media:

Robert J. Del Bonta Collection

Creator:
Del Bontà, Robert John  Search this
Former owner:
Underwood & Underwood  Search this
Names:
Picart, Bernard, 1673-1733  Search this
Extent:
12 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Prints
Stereographs
Engravings
Place:
India
Shiva
South Asia
India -- Goa
Calcutta (India)
Sri Lanka
Date:
Circa 1500-1900
Scope and Contents:
The collection primarily contains prints, engravings, and books. The majority of the collection highlights the Indian subcontinent from the 16th to the 20th centuries through the lens of Europeans. It contains depiction of the subcontinent's peoples, cultures, monuments, religious sites, and religious practices as seen in Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian publications. Among this collection are also some representations of people from other parts of the world.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into seven series, beginning with the initial gift in support of the 2014 exhibition, Strange and Wondrous: Prints of India from the Robert J. Del Bontà Collection. Each series represents a grouping selected by the donor and follows the donor's original curation of the material. E or engraving numbers reflect the donor's numbering system.

Series 1: Original gift supporting the exhibition, Strange and Wondrous: Prints of India from the Robert J. Del Bontà Collection in 2014 focusing on ascetics and mendicants. Series 2: Prints and Engravings relating to the rulers including Timurid and Mughal rulers Series 3: 16th-17th century prints Series 4: Engravings and prints from around the world Series 5: English engravings depicting India Series 6: Dutch and French engravings of voyages across the world Series 7: French engravings depicting monuments of India
Biographical / Historical:
Dr. Robert J. Del Bontà was born in 1949. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978. From 1993 to 2000 he was a research associate and guest curator at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He also curated major exhibitions for the Berkeley Art Museum; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; the Portland Art Museum; and the New Orleans Museum of Art. He writes and lectures on a wide range of subjects relating to South Asian art including paintings, prints, photographs, popular art, sculptures, and architecture. More recently, he also writes about European prints pertaining to Europe's perception of India and Indo-Portuguese art.

Del Bontà began to collect prints related to South Asia while completing his doctorate in South Asian art history at the University of Michigan in the 1970s. The Robert J. Del Bontà collection contains prints and books depicting people, cultures, religious customs, gods and goddesses, and architecture of Asia, with a specific emphasis on South Asian art.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the National Museum of Asian Art's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Topic:
Fakirs -- India  Search this
Hinduism  Search this
Voyages and travels  Search this
Ethnography -- South Asia  Search this
Mughal Empire  Search this
Religion  Search this
Buddhist temples  Search this
Cave temples  Search this
Mosques  Search this
Buddhas  Search this
Buddhism  Search this
Genre/Form:
Prints
Stereographs
Engravings
Citation:
Robert J. Del Bonta Collection, FSA A2014.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2014.06
See more items in:
Robert J. Del Bonta Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3d67d91eb-ce7c-4c80-b796-d41e9805c3ab
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2014-06
Online Media:

Aschwin Lippe Collection

Creator:
Lippe, Aschwin, 1914-1988  Search this
Extent:
36 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Place:
India -- description and travel
Date:
1930 - 1988
Summary:
Aschwin Lippe was a research fellow and later curator in the Department of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The collection includes his early research and writings on East Asian art, particularly Chinese paintings. It has substantial material on his involvement in selecting the paintings and writing the catalog for the 1961 Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition. He later shifted his research focus to medieval Indian sculpture. The collection includes journals kept during several years of field research in India as well as his extensive photo-documentation of Indian temples and religious sculpture.
Scope and Contents:
The collection contains limited biographic material. The material covering his career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art includes some memoranda and general items. During his time at the museum he frequently visited public and private art collections, keeping copious object notes. Material documenting his work on the 1961 Chinese Art Treasures exhibition includes a diary of his 1954 visit to Taipei and his notes on objects viewed at the Palace Museum storage facility in Taichung. Also included are his drafts and correspondence from 1960-1961 about proposed exhibit catalog descriptions for the Chinese paintings. Lippe's correspondence consists mostly of letters with scholars and colleagues. In general, the correspondence includes a few letters each to a large number of individuals. He kept correspondence about major projects in the file with other materials relating to that project. Materials on Lippe's research and publications include some items from his initial scholarly interest in Far Eastern art, particularly Chinese painting. This includes drafts and correspondence documenting his participation in the catalog for the Exhibition of Chinese Calligraphy and Paintings in the John M. Crawford Jr. collection. Most of the research collection concerns India and two major publications: "South Indian Architecture and Sculpture" in The Arts of India and his book Indian Medieval Sculpture. Of particular interest are his India field journals (1958-1977) that record visits to sites, travel notes, descriptions and photography. Lippe's wife Simone traveled with him and contributed to the field journals. Photography of temples and especially their sculpture was the focus of his field research. He made 8-by-10-inch black and white enlargements of sites and sculpture that he organized into study albums as needed for a particular article or project. The collection also includes a large number of 35 mm. color slides taken by Simone Lippe that record general views of sites, scenery, daily life and festivals. The collection includes slides and photographs taken during trips elsewhere in Asia and not directly related to Lippe's own research. These are mostly scenic views and general "tourist" pictures. The architecture of Hindu-Buddhist temples and sculpture in countries such as Indonesia and Cambodia may have been of scholarly interest as reflections of ancient Indian cultural influence.
Arrangement:
The Collection is organized into 5 series with subseries. A 6th series inventories items from other series but housed in an Outsize Box. Series 1: Personal and Professional Life

Subseries 1.1: Biographic Material and Metropolitan Museum of Art Career

Subseries 1.2: Notes on Collections

Subseries 1.3: Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition, 1961-1962

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: East Asia Research and Publications

Subseries 3.1: Background Material and Manuscripts Subseries 3.2: Crawford Collection Catalog Series 4: India Research and Publications

Subseries 4.1: India Background Materials Subseries 4.2: India Manuscripts and Publications Subseries 4.3: India Fieldwork 1958-1977: Field Journals, Travel Notes and Itineraries

Series 5: Photography

Subseries 5.1: Albums, Lists, and Contact Prints Subseries 5.2: India Photographs Subseries 5.3: Non-India Photographs Subseries: 5.4 India 35 mm. Color slides Subseries 5.5: Non-India 35 mm. Color slides

Series 6: Miscellaneous, Outsize Box
Biographical / Historical:
Aschwin Lippe [Ernst Aschwin Prinz zur Lippe-Biesterfeld] was born June 13, 1914 in Jena, Germany and died March 14, 1988 in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 1951 he married Simone Arnoux, born May 9, 1915 in Paris and died November 21, 2001 in The Hague. As a student in Germany, Lippe studied Chinese, East Asian art and archaeology, and the history of art. He received his Diploma of Chinese in 1933 from the Seminary for Oriental Languages in Berlin and his PhD in Sinology and Far Eastern Art and Archaeology in 1942 from Berlin University. Lippe began his museum career in the Department of East Asian Art of the State Museum in Berlin. In 1949 he joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City as a Senior Research Fellow in Far Eastern Art. He became an Associate Curator in 1950, Research Curator in 1964, and Curator Emeritus in 1973. Lippe was a member of the Selection and Catalog Committee for the Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition in 1961, the first major American exhibition of works from the National Palace Museum in Taipei. An expert on Chinese Painting, he visited Taipei in 1954 and was able to travel to Taichung to view paintings and other art objects still in storage. In the 1960s his interests turned increasingly toward Indian medieval temple art and architecture, especially sculpture. Joined by his wife Simone, he made several research trips to India from 1958 to 1970 during which he took detailed photographs of Indian temples, documenting their sculpture. This research was the foundation for Lippe's "South Indian Architecture and Sculpture" section in The Arts of India (1981), and his major work Indian Medieval Sculpture (1978).
Related Materials:
Collections

James Cahill Papers

John A. Pope Papers
Provenance:
Gift of Thilo von Watzdorf
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Topic:
Sculpture -- India  Search this
Photography-India  Search this
Painting, Chinese  Search this
Temples-India  Search this
metropolitan museum of art  Search this
Chinese Art Treasures Exhibition 1961-1962  Search this
Citation:
The Aschwin Lippe Collection. FSA.A2012.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2012.01
See more items in:
Aschwin Lippe Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3c0710ec8-688f-4340-bb79-29dff35cf9ca
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2012-01

Ernst Herzfeld Papers

Topic:
Papyrus
Creator:
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Names:
Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum  Search this
Verlag Philipp von Zabern  Search this
Anistās Mārī, al-Karmilī, ab, 1866-1947  Search this
Becker, Carl Heinrich, 1876-1933  Search this
Bell, Gertrude Lowthian, 1868-1926  Search this
Berchem, Max van, 1863-1921  Search this
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Krefter, Friedrich, 1898-1995  Search this
Meyer, Eduard, 1855-1930  Search this
Sarre, Friedrich Paul Theodor, 1865-1945  Search this
Extent:
150 Linear feet (circa 30,000 items)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Blueprints
Journals (accounts)
Photographs
Clippings
Notebooks
Drawings
Sketchbooks
Articles
Paper squeezes
Correspondence
Diaries
Sketches
Rubbings
Place:
Turkey
Mesopotamia
Bakun, Tall-e (Iran)
Iran
Iraq
Lebanon
Persepolis (Iran)
Pasargadae (Extinct city)
Taq-e Bostan Site (Iran)
Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq)
Syria
Date:
1903-1947
Summary:
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.
Scope and Contents:
Papers (1899--1962) of German born archaeologist Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879--1948), a preeminent scholar of Near Eastern and Iranian studies. The collection measures 150 linear feet (circa 30,000 items) and documents Herzfeld's work as a pioneer in the field and sheds light on his excavations at Samarra, Persepolis, Pasargadae, and Aleppo. Formats include correspondence; field notebooks; drawings; sketchbooks; inventories of objects; "squeeze" copies of architectural details; and photographs.
Arrangement:
This collection is organized into seven series.

Series 1: Travel journals

Series 2: Sketchbooks

Series 3: Notebooks

Series 4: Photographic files 1-42

Series 5: Drawings and maps

Series 6: Squeezes

Series 7: Samarra Expedition
Biographical / Historical:
The Ernst Herzfeld Papers document the career of Ernst Herzfeld (1879--1948), a German architect, archaeologist, and historian of Islamic and Pre-Islamic studies. After training as an architect he studied archaeology under Delitzch from 1903 to 1906 at the excavations at Assur in Mesopotamia. A student of Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew, Herzfeld received a doctorate in Humanistic Studies at universities in Munich and Berlin in 1907. His work with Friedrich Sarre to survey the monuments of the Tigris-Euphrates valleys resulted in landmark studies in architectural history, published in 1911 and 1920.

In 1920 Herzfeld was appointed to the chair of Historical Geography in Berlin and began his excavation at Samarra. Herzfeld's work there led to a six-volume publication. He published widely throughout his life on the sources of Islamic architecture and ornament, including the Royal Palace at Persepolis.

From 1934 until the end of his life Herzfeld spent his time producing many books and articles, lecturing, and working at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1936--1945.) Many of his works continue to be published post-humously.

1879 July 23 -- Born in Celle, Germany.

1897 -- Received diploma from Joachimsthaler Gymnasium, Berlin.

1897-circa 1898 -- Fulfilled military service.

circa 1899 -- Studied architecture at the Technical University and Assyriology, art history, and philosophy at the Friedrich-Wilhems Universität in Berlin.

1903 -- Passed exam in structural engineering.

1903-1905 -- Assistant to Walter Andrae (1875-1956) in Assur.

1905-1906 -- Traveled throughout Iran and Iraq.

1907 -- Excavation in Cilicia. Passed oral exam in February. Awarded doctorate in Humanistic Studies by Friedrich-Wilhems Universtät zu Berlin. After receiving Ph.D. traveled extensively in Syria and Iraq with Friedrich Sarre, director of the Islamic Museum in Berlin.

1910 -- Herzfeld and Sarre jointly publish, Iranische Felsreliefs (Berlin, 1910).

1911-1913 -- Field Director under direction of Sarre during expedition to Samarra.

circa 1914 -- Drafted into service in France and Poland during World War I. Sent to Iraq where he functioned as a surveyor.

1916 -- Father died.

1917 -- Appointed associate professor for Historical Geography and Art History of the Ancient Orient at Berlin. Along with Friedrich Sarre and others, founded the German-Persian Society to increase cultural and economic exchange between Germany and Persia.

1920 -- Appointed world's first full professor of Near Eastern Archeology. Begins excavation at Samarra.

1922 -- Mother died.

1923-1934 -- In Persia, where he completed many excavations and studies.

1928 -- Excavation at Pasargadae.

1931-1934 -- Appointed director of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and moved to Persepolis.

1934 -- As grandson of Jews, Nazi legislation expelling state employees of Jewish descent forced Herzfeld to retire as a professor employed by the state. Moved to London.

1936 -- Delivered Lowell Lectures. Moved to Boston. Lectured on Iranian history and appointed a member of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

1944 -- Retired from Princeton University.

1948 January 20 -- Died.
Provenance:
Ernst Herzfeld donated his papers to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1946.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Ayyubids  Search this
Art of the Islamic World  Search this
Antiquities  Search this
History  Search this
Excavations (Archaeology)  Search this
Pottery  Search this
Description and Travel  Search this
Decoration and ornament  Search this
Ancient Near Eastern Art  Search this
Aerial photography  Search this
Abbasids  Search this
Religious buildings  Search this
Numismatics  Search this
Inscriptions  Search this
Architectural drawing  Search this
Genre/Form:
Blueprints
Journals (accounts)
Photographs
Clippings
Notebooks
Drawings
Sketchbooks
Articles
Paper Squeezes
Correspondence
Diaries
Sketches
Rubbings
Citation:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. FSA.A.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946.
Identifier:
FSA.A.06
See more items in:
Ernst Herzfeld Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3d8456fbe-98f6-4159-bd2f-c485379b84a7
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-06
Online Media:

Louise Allison Cort Collection

Former owner:
Cort, Louise Allison, 1944-  Search this
Extent:
4.14 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1968 - 2011
bulk 1971-1989
Content Description:
The collection contains materials related to Louise Cort's book "Shigaraki, Potters' Valley" (1979, 2000), concerning ceramics manufactured in the Shigaraki area of Japan. Primarily research-related, the collection includes her dissertation, research notes, index card files, originals and copies of source materials, drawings/sketches, and photographic materials (primarily black and white, some color; formats include prints, contact sheets, and negatives). Also included are post-publication materials, including royalty statements and related correspondence, clippings of reviews, correspondence, and other materials related to Cort's ongoing interest in Shigaraki.
Biographical / Historical:
Louise Allison Cort was born in 1944 in Philidelphia to parents John Shaw Cort Jr. and Mary Yunck Cort. Her interest in Asian ceramics began after traveling to Japan in 1961 as part of the American Field Service's high school exchange student program. She was particularly interested in the everyday wares used by her host mother. While in college, she took an intensive Japanese language course, and she traveled to Tokyo for further language study in graduate school. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Simmons College, with a minor in art history. Cort then received her graduate degree from Oxford University, studying Japanese art history. In March 1968, she traveled to Shigaraki for the first time, inspired by the Shigaraki ceramics she had seen in her visits to Japanese museums. She returned multiple times to research Shigaraki's history, ceramics, and modern life. For over three years (1976-1979), Cort lived in Kyoto while doing research for her book, Shigaraki, Potters' Valley. Later, she traveled to India for a year and a half (1979-1981) to research earthenware, resulting in the book Temple Potters of Puri (2012), coauthored with Purna Chandra Mishra. Those materials are held by the South Asian Institute archives of Heidelberg University, Germany, and film footage is in the Human Studies Film Archive, Smithsonian Institution. The archives of her research on present-day ceramics in mainland Southeast Asia between 1986 and 2018 in collaboration with Leedom Lefferts is held by the Yale University archive. 

From 1969 to 1976, she served as Assistant Curator of Oriental Art at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In 1981, she began her work at the Freer Gallery of Art as a Museum Specialist, serving in that role until 1989. From 1989 to 1994, she was Assistant Curator, and then moved to Associate Curator from 1994 to 1995. Cort then held the position of Curator of Ceramics from 1995 until her retirement in 2018. She remains curator emerita. As a scholar, her interests focused on historic and contemporary Asian ceramics, as well as other craft traditions. She published her first book "Shigaraki, Potters' Valley" in 1979. Her book was reprinted in 2000. Cort has published numerous other articles and books relating to Japanese, Southeast Asian, and South Asian art. These include Temple Potters of Puri (with Purna Chandra Mishra) in 2012 and Chigusa and the Art of Tea (with Andrew Watsky) in 2014. She received the Koyama Fujio Memorial Prize and the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award in 2012 for her contributions to research on Japanese ceramics.
Related Materials: Leedom Lefferts and Louise Allison Cort Archives:
Lefferts, Leedom and Louise A. Cort. "Leedom Lefferts and Louise Allison Cort Archives." Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. New Haven, CT: Archives at Yale. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/15/resources/12290#
Citation:
Louise Allison Cort Collection. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2021.01
See more items in:
Louise Allison Cort Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc305cabae6-94e7-4b4a-a3b7-d60159a3e64c
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2021-01

Mowry Family Photographs

Creator:
Mowry, Eli, 1880-1970  Search this
Extent:
152 Photographs (Black and White silver gelatin prints; Postcards)
0.2 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Photographic prints
Postcards
Black-and-white photographic prints
Place:
Korea
Pyongyang (Korea)
Date:
1909-1940
Scope and Contents:
One hundred fifty two photographic prints and postcards, compiled by the family of Eil Mowry during their residence in Pyongyang between 1909 and 1940. Photographs were taken mostly by Eli Mowry and son David Mowry, although a number of the photographs apparently derive from commercial sources. Prints are primarily black and white silver gelatin prints, with a small number of commercial postcards. Subjects include personal photographs of family and friends, the foreign compound, church and school activities, views of Pyongyang, Daegu, and Incheon, and various Korean scenes, life and customs. Many photographs are considerably damaged due to a house fire in the 1980s.
마우리 목사는 미국 오하이오주 출신으로 1909년 북장로파 선교사로 한국에 왔다. 평양 숭실학교 교장 및 숭실대학[현 숭실대학의 전신]에서 5대 학장을 지내며 학생들을 가르쳤다. 일제치하 신사참배를 거부하였고, 학생들에게 민족주의 사상을 심어주었다. 항일운동을 하는 학생들을 자신의 집에 숨겨주고 목숨을 구해주었으며, 이 일로 일본 경찰에 체포되어[1919년 4월 11일] 옥고를 치르기도 하였다. 평양의 장대현 장로교회에서 남성 성가대[찬양대]를 조직하여 지휘자로 활동함으로써 양악 전파에 기여하기도 하였다. 1968년 대한민국 정부로부터 건국훈장을 수상하였다.
Arrangement:
Photographs are numbered individually with no attempt to organize by subject. Arranged by photograph number.
Biographical / Historical:
Reverend Eli Mowry was a Presbyterian missionary and educator, originally from Ohio. In 1909 he moved to Pyongyang with his family, where they lived until 1941. Mowry eventually became head of Soongsil Academy, which was eventually to become Soongsil University. In 1919, Eli Mowry was arrested by Japanese authorities for harboring anti-Japanese student protesters. His incarceration and trial became an international incident. In 1950, Mowry was awarded the Decoration of Honor, Third Order, from the Republic of Korea. In 1968, he and his wife Lois received an additional special citation from the Korean government.
Local Numbers:
FSA.A2010.04
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Missions  Search this
Christian education  Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Postcards
Black-and-white photographic prints -- Silver gelatin -- 1900-1950
Citation:
Mowry Family Photographs of Korea, FSA.A2010.04. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Miriam Stein, 2010.
Identifier:
FSA.A2010.04
See more items in:
Mowry Family Photographs
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc355ab9617-b09d-4cb1-9622-ee7f80f676b7
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2010-04
Online Media:

Milton S. Eisenhower Library South Asian Architecture Photograph Collection

Creator:
Milton S. Eisenhower Library  Search this
Names:
Johnston & Hoffman  Search this
Lala Deen Dayal & Sons  Search this
Extent:
255 Photographic prints
2.5 Cubic feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Albumen prints
Collodion printing-out paper prints
Platinum prints
Place:
India
Java
Kashmir (India)
Ganges River (India and Bangladesh)
Burma
Date:
ca. 1900 - ca. 1920
Scope and Contents:
The photographs document prehistoric through 17th century A.D. architecture in India, Java, and Burma (now Myanmar), including religious and secular structures and engineered works. There are also landscapes showing the sites of early structures in Kashmir. Structures shown include bridges, Buddhist temples (with sculptures), dwellings (such as caves and huts), pagodas, ruins, and walls (with sculpture). The photographs also include an informal portrait of a young girl, group portraits of men and women washing in the Ganges River, and some contemporary landscape shots. Some items with description, location, and name of building or site. The collection is compiled from photographs taken by various photography studios, including Johnston and Hoffman and Lala Deen Dayal and Sons.
Arrangement:
Organized by photography studio, then by original photograph number.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1989.01
Provenance:
The Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University Gift; 1989.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Topic:
Architecture -- India  Search this
Architecture -- Burma  Search this
Architecture -- Java  Search this
Genre/Form:
Albumen prints
Collodion printing-out paper prints
Platinum Prints
Citation:
Milton S. Eisenhower Library South Asian Architecture Photographs. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, Johns Hopkins University, 1989.
Identifier:
FSA.A1989.01
See more items in:
Milton S. Eisenhower Library South Asian Architecture Photograph Collection
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3df7ccd45-f82c-4af5-9483-13d3bb73c9c1
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1989-01
Online Media:

Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Razmnama and Ramayana Photographs

Creator:
Widgery, Alban G. (Alban Gregory), 1887-1968  Search this
Akbar, Emperor of Hindustan, 1542-1605  Search this
Former owner:
Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum  Search this
Extent:
1 Cubic foot
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
circa 1924-1970s
Scope and Contents:
Collection consists of three sets of silver gelatin black and white photographs. The first is a bound volume, titled Photographs of the Paintings in the Razam-Nameh at The Palace, Jaipur, India, prepared by Alban G. Widgery, containing 105 photographs of paintings depicting scenes from the Razmnama, a Persian translation and abridgement of the Mahabharata, including labels. Widgery obtained the photographs from the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, which holds the original Razmnama illuminated manuscript, in Jaipur, India before 1924. The volume is bound inside a cover originally belonging to Plants of the Falkland Islands.

The second is a larger set of 148 photographs of Razmnama/Mahabharata scenes. These are copy prints made in the 1970s by Freer Gallery of Art staff of photographs from the volume assembled by Widgery, including additional images that are not in the volume.

The third is a set of 154 photographs of paintings depicting scenes from the Ramayana from the collection of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, which gave the photographs to the Freer Gallery of Art in the early 1970s.
Arrangement:
Arranged by format, thereunder alphabetically by title, thereunder numerically.
Biographical / Historical:
These photographs document paintings illustrating scenes from the Razmnama, a Persian translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, and the Ramayana. The original paintings Widgery photograph are from the collections of the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum in Jaipur, India. Both works were commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Akbar I (1542-1605).

The Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, located at The City Palace in Jaipur, India, was founded in 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. It preserves and offers access to the palace itself, as well as collections of paintings, textiles, photographs, and archives.

Alban Widgery (1887-1968) was most noted as a professor of philosophy at Duke University, where he served as chair of the Department of Philosophy from 1930-1946. He specialized in the philosophy of religion and took particular interest in India, where he traveled extensively.
Provenance:
Transferred from the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research use.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Citation:
Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Razmnama and Ramayana Photographs, FSA.A2019.07. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2019.07
See more items in:
Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum Razmnama and Ramayana Photographs
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc34aa4af43-8b21-4849-9f63-1781646bb15f
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2019-07

Charles Lang Freer Papers

Creator:
Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this
Extent:
131 Linear feet (29 architectural drawings)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Diaries
Financial records
Correspondence
Photographs
Place:
China
Syria
Egypt
India
London (England)
Japan
Boston (Mass.)
Detroit (Mich.)
Washington (D.C.)
Kandy (Sri Lanka)
Sri Lanka
Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)
Date:
1876-1931
Summary:
The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs.
Scope Content:
The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, financial material, architectural drawings, and photographs.

Correspondence, circa 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; letterpress books contain copies of Freer's outgoing letters, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler's mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer's letters from his associates, and regarding the settlement of his estate.

Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910. Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenollosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society.
Organization of the Papers:
This collection is organized into twelve series.

Series 1: Genealogical and Biographical Data

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: Diaries

Series 4: Freer Colleague Materials

Series 5: Art Inventories

Series 6: Financial Materials

Series 7: Exhibition Loan Files

Series 8: Biblical Manuscripts and Gold Treasure Files

Series 9: American School of Archaeology in China

Series 10: Printed Material

Series 11: Outsize Material

Series 12: Photographs
Biographical Note:
1854 February 25 -- Born in Kingston, New York

1873 -- Appointed accountant and paymaster of New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad by Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927)

1876 -- Moves to Indiana to work, with Hecker, for the Detroit and Eel River and Illinois Railroad

1880 -- Moves to Detroit, participates in organization of the Peninsular Car Works with Hecker

1883 -- Becomes vice president and secretary of Peninsular Car Company when it succeeds Peninsular Car Works

1883 -- Begins collecting European prints

1884 -- Peninsular Car Company constructs plant on Ferry Avenue

1887 -- Meets Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)

1887 -- Acquires proofs of 26 etchings, Venice, Second Series(1886), by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

1887 -- Purchases a small Japanese fan attributed to Ogata Korin(1658-1715)

1887 -- Buys land on Ferry Avenue

1889 -- Meets Frederick Stuart Church (1826-1900) and Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925) in New York

1890 -- Commissions Wilson Eyre (1858-1944) to design house on Ferry Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

1890 -- On first trip to London, meets James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903)

1892 -- Moves to Ferry Avenue house

1892 -- Tryon and Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) undertake decoration of reception rooms

1893 -- Lends American paintings to World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

1893 -- Purchases first piece of Chinese art, a small painting of white herons by an anonymous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) artist

1894 -- Begins yearlong trip around the world, which includes visit to the Whistlers in Paris and first trip to Asia, stopping in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, China, and Japan

1896 -- Meets Matsuki Bunkyo (1867-1940) in Boston

1899 -- Takes part in consolidation of railroad-car building companies then retires from active business

1900 -- Attends Exposition International Universelle in Paris

1900 -- Buys villa in Capri with Thomas S. Jerome

1901 -- Meets Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) in Paris and Ernest Fenollosa(1853-1908), who visits Freer in Detroit

1902 -- Meets Dikran Kelekian (1868-1951)

1902 -- Spends summer in Britain building Whistler collection

1902 -- Views Whistler's, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

1904 -- Purchases Whistler's Peacock Room

1904 -- Offers his art collections and funds to build a museum in which to house them to the Smithsonian Institution

1905 -- Smithsonian committee visits Freer in Detroit

1906 -- United States government formally accepts Freer's gift on January 24

1906 -- Freer signs Deed of Gift to Smithsonian Institution on May 5

1907 -- On second tour of Asia, meets Hara Tomitaro 1868-1939) in Yokohama, Japan

1908 -- Takes third trip to Asia, specifically to West Asia to study Rakka ware

1909 -- Tours Europe to study art museums

1909 -- On fourth trip to Asia, attends memorial ceremony for Fenollosa (d.1908 September) at Miidera, Japan, and meets Duanfang (1861-1911) in China

1910 -- On last trip to Asia, visits Longmen Buddhist caves in China

1911 -- Suffers stroke

1912 -- Lends selection of objects for exhibition at Smithsonian Institution

1913 -- Meets Eugene (1875-1957) and Agnes E. (1887-1970) Meyer

1913 -- Commissions Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933) to design museum building in Washington

1914 -- Meets Katharine Nash Rhoades (1885-1965) in Detroit

1915 -- Settles in New York City

1915 -- Site of future Freer Gallery of Art is determined

1916 -- Platt's plans for Freer Gallery are approved by Smithsonian Regents and Commission of Fine Arts and ground is broken in September

1918 -- After falling ill in Detroit, Freer travels to New York for treatment

1918 -- Work on the museum building is delayed by the war

1919 -- Freer appends codicil to will permitting acquisitions of Asian, Egyptian, and Near Eastern (West Asian) art

1919 -- Dies in New York City on 25 September and is buried in Kingston, New York

1919 -- Construction of Freer Gallery completed

1920 -- John Ellerton Lodge (1876-1942) is appointed director of the Freer Gallery

1923 -- Freer Gallery opens to the public on May 9

1930 -- Memorial ceremony for Freer is held at Koetsuji, Kyoto

Charles Lang Freer was an American industrialist who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. He was a well-known collector of Asian art, and strongly supported the synthesis of Eastern art and Western art. One of his most famous acquisitions was James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room.
Index:
Index to cross-referenced correspondents in the series Charles Lang Freer correspondence

Beal, Junius E. -- See: -- Warring, Joseph Stephens

Black, George M. -- See: -- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Board of Education (Kingston, New York) See: Michael, M. J.

Bonner, Campbell See: University of Michigan

Boughton, George H. See: Yardley, F. C.

British Museum See: Binyon, Laurence; Hobson, R. L.

Brown, Harold H. See: Art Association of Indianapolis

Buchner, Evelyn B. See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Buckholder, C. H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Butler, S. B. See: Unidentified correspondents

Carnegie Institute See: Balken, Edward Duff; Harshe, Robert B.

Carpenter, Newton H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Caulkins, Horace James See: Pewabic Pottery

Chao, Shih-chin See: Gunn, Chu Su

Chicago & North Western Railway Co. See: Hughett, Marvin

Clark, Charles Upson See: Clark, Arthur B.

Cleveland Museum of Art See: Whiting, Frederic Allen

Columbia University See: Braun, W. A.; Gottheil, Richard; Hirth, Friederich

Commission of Fine Arts See: Moore, Charles

Corcoran Gallery of Art See: Minnigerode, C. Powell

Crocker, Anna B. See: Portland Art Association

Dannenberg, D. E. See: Karlbeck, Orvar

De Menoncal, Beatrice See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

De Ricci, Seymour See: Ricci, Seymour de

Defnet, William A., Mrs., See: Franke, Ida M.

DeMotte See: Vigouroux, J.

Detroit Institute of Arts See: Detroit Museum of Art

Detroit Publishing Company See: Livingstone, W. A.

Detroit School of Design See: George Hamilton; Stevens, Henry

DeVinne Press See: Peters, Samuel T.; Witherspoon, A. S.

Dyrenforth, P. C. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eddy, Arthur J. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eggers, George Williams See: Art Institute of Chicago

Farr, Daniel H. See: Robinson and Farr

Farrand School (Detroit) See: Yendall, Edith

Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) See: Laufer, Berthold

Flagg, Frederick J. See: Allen, Horace N.

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University See: Forbes, Edward; Pope, Arthur Upham; Sachs, Paul J.

French, M. R. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Fu, Lan-ya See: Pang, Lai-ch'en

Fujii, Yoshio See: Yoshio, Fujii

Gerrity, Thomas See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Goupil Gallery See: Marchant, William

Gray, William J. See: Barr, Eva

Great Lakes Engineering Works See: Hoyt, H. W.

Grolier Club See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Heinemann, W. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Holden, Edward S. See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

Hudson, J. L. See: Weber, William C.

Hutchins, Harry B. See: University of Michigan

Hutchins, Charles L. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Kelekian, H. G. See: Kelekian, Dikran G.

Kent, H. W. See: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lee, Kee Son See: Li, Chi-ch'un

Levy, John See: Schneider, A. K.

Library of Congress See: Rice, Richard A.; Wright, Helen

Louvre (Paris, France) See: Midgeon, Gaston

Matsuki, Z. See: Matsuki, Kihachiro

McKim, Mead and White See: White, Stanford

Mills, A. L., Colonel See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Miner, Luella See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

Minneapolis Institute of Arts See: Breck, Joseph; Van Derlip, John R.

Monif, R. Khan See: Rathbun, Richard

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston See: Lodge, John Ellerton

Naser, Katen & Nahass See: Katen, K.

Nordlinger, Marie, Miss See: Meyer-Riefstahl, Marie

Panama Pacific International Exposition See: Moore, Charles C.; Trask, John E. D.

Peabody Museum See: Morse, Edward Sylvester

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Trask, John E. D.

Perry, Mary Chase, Miss., See: Pewabic Pottery

Philip, Ronald M. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Pope, G. D. See: Barr, Eva

Reinhart, A. G. See: Gottschalk, E.

Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch See: Bosch-Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien

Rutgers College See: Van Dyke, John C.

Saint-Gaudens, Augusta H. See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Saint-Gaudens, Homer See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Samurai Shokai See: Nomura, Yozo

San Francisco Art Association See: Laurvik, J. Nilsen

Scribner's, Charles, Sons See: Van Dyke, John C.

Shaw, Wilfred B. See: University of Michigan

Shirae, S. Z. See: Yamanaka and Company

Smith College See: Clark, Arthur B.

Smithsonian Institution See: Holmes, William Henry; Rathbun, Richard; Ravenel, Walcott, Charles D.

Society of Arts and Crafts (Detroit) See: Plumb, Helen

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens, George W. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Stratton, Mary Chase Perry See: Pewabic Pottery

Tanaka, Kichijiro See: Yamanaka and Company

Tuttle, William F. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Union Trust Company (Detroit) See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

United States Military Academy See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

University of Chicago See: Zug, George Breed

University of Pennsylvania, Univ. Mus. See: Gordon, George Bryon

Ushikubo, D. J. R. See: Yamanaka and Company

Wallis & Son See: Barr, Eva; Thompson, C. Croal Ward, Clarence See: Oberlin College

Warren, Edward K. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Warring, Stephen See: Warring, Joseph Stephens

Watkin, Williams R. T. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Watson, Margaret, Miss See: Parker, Margaret Watson

Whistler, Anna See: Stanton, Anna Whistler

Whiting, Almon C. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Williams College See: Rice, Richard A

Wright, F. G. See: Orbach and Company

Yatsuhashi, H. See: Yamanaka and Company
Index to cross-referenced correspondence in the series Whistler correspondence

Bell, William See: Unidentified correspondents

Brown, Ernest See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Cowen, John T. See subseries: Charles Lang Freer Correspondence

Ford, Sheridan See: Reid, Alexander

Haden, Francis Seymour See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Haden, Francis Seymour, Lady See: Haden, Deborah Whistler

Leighton, Frederick, Baron See: Campbell, Lady Colin

Moore, Albert See: Reid, Alexander

Morley, Charles See: Pall Mall Gazette

Morris, Harrison S. See: Reid, Alexander

Pennell, Joseph See: Miscellaneous typescripts

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Prange, F. G. See: Reid, Alexander

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Society of Portrait Painters See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens Fine Art See: Reid, Alexander

Studd, Arthur See: Miscellaneous typescripts

[Vanderbilt?], George, Mrs. See: George, Mrs.

Whistler, William McNeill, Mrs. See: Whistler, Nellie

Whistler Memorial Committee See: Miscellaneous typescripts
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art microfilmed portions of the Freer papers in 1992. The microfilm is available at the Archives of American Art's Washington D.C. office, the Freer Gallery of Art Library, and through interlibrary loan.
Provenance:
Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Art, American -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Architecture -- Asia  Search this
Genre/Form:
Diaries
Financial records
Correspondence
Photographs
Citation:
Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA A.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.
Identifier:
FSA.A.01
See more items in:
Charles Lang Freer Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3f1a0e3e0-630c-48d4-ba28-485946b1d615
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-01
Online Media:

Chaplain A.C. Oliver Jr. Lantern Slide Collection

Collector:
Oliver, Alfred Cookman, 1885-1952  Search this
Extent:
306 Lantern slides (black and white and color)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Lantern slides
Place:
Beijing (China)
China -- Beijing -- Beijing
China -- Description and Travel
Date:
circa 1920's and 1930's
Scope and Contents:
Lantern slides and stereopticons, black and white and hand-colored, assembled by Chaplain Oliver (he appears in several), depicting monuments and scenes, especially in Beijing, such as Ming tombs, temples, the Summer Palace, landscapes, place views, military soldiers, Chinese people, Western visitors, and daily life. Also includes images of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Four boxes of the slides are housed in original wooden slide cases with Chaplain Oliver's name and the subject of the slide within painted on the cover. Many slides are numbered on the mount ; some credit the Hui Wen Photo Department, Tiensin Hui Wen Academy.
Arrangement:
Slides organized in 10 boxes; arranged by scene
Biographical / Historical:
Colonel Alfred C. Oliver Jr. graduated from Princeton University in 1917, and subsequently became an U.S. Army Chaplain, serving in both the First and Second World Wars. Oliver spent two years in China from 1930-1932. In 1942, he was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese in the Phillipines. Upon surviving the Bataan death march, he was kept imprisoned until his release in 1945. Over the course of his life, he was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital (Washington, D.C.) , in Hawaii, and in Fort Harrison, Indiana, where he became involved in the Civilian Conservation Corps. He co-authored with Harold M. Dudley a book entitled "This new America: the spirit of the Civilian Conservation Corps" (1937) regarding his experience in this work. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1946.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Lantern slides -- 1900-1950
Citation:
Chaplain A.C. Oliver Jr. Lantern Slide Collection, FSA.A1997.06. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1997.06
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc328112585-3e72-4ffb-919e-d13b48ba64b7
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1997-06
Online Media:

The J.T. Tai & Co. Papers

Creator:
Tai, J.T. (1911-1992)  Search this
Extent:
7.2 Cubic feet (12 document boxes)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Date:
1950-1997
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists mainly of the stock records of J.T. Tai & Co. The majority of stock records are organized by stock number in four series: YT numbers, A numbers, CT numbers, and JT numbers. Stock records for objects sold to buyers who did significant business with J.T. Tai & Co. were often removed to binders dedicated to that purchaser. Series two consists of these binders. Consignment records document objects consigned to J.T. Tai & Co., both sold and returned to owners. Series four through six (Sales Slips, Conservation Records, and Photographs) are small groupings of limited materials. Sales slips document sales by J.T. Tai & Co. in chronological order. Each line-item records date, buyer, brief description, stock number, and price of a sale. Conservation Records document conservation work J.T. Tai commissioned or facilitated, typically through correspondence. The photographs provide visual documentation of stone sculptures.
Arrangement:
Arranged in six series: Series 1: Stock Records, Series 2: Collector & Institution Binders, Series 3: Consignment, Series 4: Sales Slips, Series 5: Conservation Records, and Series 6: Photographs.
Biographical / Historical:
TAI Jun Tsei (Dai Runzhai 戴潤齋 1911–1992; born Dai Fubao), or J.T. Tai as he was known in the West, was an incredibly important dealer in Chinese antiquities who shaped American collections of Chinese art throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Indeed, he ranks second only to C.T. Loo in defining the meaning of Chinese art for Western institutions and scholars alike.

Tai began his career at his uncle's small antique store in Wuxi, China. Between 1945 and 1949, Tai regularly sold antiquities sourced in rural China to Lu Wu Antiques Company, an export company that C.T. Loo operated with Wu Qizhou. Lu Wu Antiques exclusively supplied Loo's western business, C.T. Loo & Company with galleries in Paris and New York. Upon the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the government attempted to arrest J.T. Tai for illegally exporting objects. Coming very close to being captured, he and his wife, Pingying Tai (1915–1998), escaped dramatically to Hong Kong, where they slowly reclaimed Mr. Tai's collection from Shanghai. In early 1950, Tai immigrated to New York City with the help of C.T. Loo and established himself as an independent dealer by the fall of 1950. Tai's business flourished and he played an instrumental role in shaping several American collections of Chinese art, Avery Brundage and Arthur M. Sackler were his most important clients. Upon Tai's death in 1992, J.T. Tai & Company ceased doing business.
Topic:
Art, Asian  Search this
Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this
Citation:
The J.T. Tai & Co. Papers, FSA.A2023.01. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A2023.01
See more items in:
The J.T. Tai & Co. Papers
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3ccb3063b-7013-4cdd-8b1a-9387e5b7ca2d
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a2023-01

Raymond A. Hare Photographs

Creator:
Hare, Raymond A.  Search this
Extent:
6 Linear feet (2300 photographs)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Dye coupler transparencies
Photograph albums
Place:
Afghanistan -- Pictorial works
Yemen -- Pictorial works
Iraq -- Pictorial works
Egypt -- Pictorial works
Greece -- Pictorial works
Iṣfahān (Iran)
Africa, North -- Pictorial works
Turkey -- Pictorial works
Syria -- Pictorial works
Date:
1930s -1960s
Summary:
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.
Arrangement:
Slides are arranged by county and city or country and subject, then by Hare's use of the materials. The prints are mounted in the albums in original order.
Biographical / Historical:
Ambassador Raymond A. Hare was born in 1901 in Martinsburg, West Virginia and raised in Manchester, Iowa and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. He received a B.A. from Grinnell College in 1924 and joined the Foreign Service in 1927. He retired in 1966 and throughout his career Hare served as U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Republic. He also served as the director general of the U.S. Foreign Service (1956-1958) and was affiliated with the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. as its president (1966-1969), national chairman (1969-1976), and chairman emeritus starting in 1976. As an amateur photographer, Hare documented Islamic architecture during his extensive travels in the Middle East, especially in Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Ambassador Raymond A. Hare died of pneumonia on February 9, 1994.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.
Topic:
Islamic architecture  Search this
Genre/Form:
Dye coupler transparencies
Photograph albums
Citation:
Raymond A. Hare Photographs, FSA.A1989.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Raymond A. Hare, 1989.
Identifier:
FSA.A1989.03
See more items in:
Raymond A. Hare Photographs
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3b1c07d76-9971-4ae2-a2a4-f7eceb78bbf7
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1989-03
Online Media:

The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan

Publisher:
Watson, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1827-1892.  Search this
Kaye, John William, Sir, 1814-1876  Search this
Extent:
8 Items
Culture:
Bhotia (Sherpa)  Search this
Dom (South Asian people)  Search this
Gond (Indic people)  Search this
Gujaratis (Indic people)  Search this
Kachari (Indic people)  Search this
Kota (Indic people)  Search this
Lepcha  Search this
Mishmi (Indic people)  Search this
Munda (Indic people)  Search this
Naga (Indonesian people)  Search this
Korwa (Indic people)  Search this
Rajput (Indic people)  Search this
Savara (Indic people)  Search this
Thakuri (Indic people)  Search this
Tharu  Search this
Toda (Indic people)  Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Place:
India
Afghanistan
Burma
Pakistan
Iran
Assam (India)
Cachar (India)
Chittagong (Bangladesh)
Delhi (India)
Hazara District (Pakistan)
Hisar (India)
Kohat District (Pakistan)
Lahore (India)
Madras (India)
Mysore (India)
Palamu (India)
Shahabad (India : District)
Shahjahanpur (India)
Sikkim (India)
Sind (India)
Date:
1868
London, C. Whiting Beaufort House, Strand, 1868-1875
Scope and Contents:
Photographers represented include J.C.A. Dannenberg, R.H. DeMontmorency, E. Godfrey, W.W. Hooper, H.C. McDonald, J. Mulheran, G. Richter, Shepherd & Robertson (later as Bourne & Shepherd), B. Simpson, B.W. Switzer, H.C.B. Tanner, C.C. Taylor, and J. Waterhouse.
Taken in the 1850s and 1860s, these photographs portray the people of many castes, culture groups, and occupations in India, posed individually and in groups. Indian culture groups portrayed include Bhogta, Bhoti, Chero, Dombo, Gond, Gujarati, Ho, Kachari, Kishangarh, Kota, Lepcha, Mishmi, Munda, Naga, Pahari, Paithan, Rajput, Saora, Singpho, Thakur, Tharu, and Toda. Peoples portrayed are from parts of India and surrounding areas, now in Afghanistan, Burma, Iran and Pakistan, such as Assam, Bareli, Behat, Cachar, Chittagong, Delhi, Hazara, Hisar, Kohat, Lahore, Madras, Munjpur, Mysore, Palamau, Shahabad, Shahjahanpur, Sikkim, and Sind.
Occupations illustrated include barbers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal carriers, farmers, fish vendors, horse dealers, interpreters, landlords, mendicants, merchants, officials, priests, warriors, and water carriers. Activities shown include dancing and knitting. Artifacts and material culture documented include books, buildings, devotional objects, tools, and weapons such as bows, clubs, shields, guns and spears.
Arrangement:
The collection is composed of 8 bound volumes with 470 albumen photoprints mounted alongside text. Photographs are arranged by region, with culture group and region, some also with name and occupation of subjects.
Biographical / Historical:
John Forbes Watson and John William Kaye assembled this ethnologic study collection from photographs made by British photographers in India. The collection documents the caste and culture groups of India for a British India Office multi-volume publication. A graduate of Aberdeen University in England, John Forbes Watson (1827-1892) served as an assistant surgeon in the Bombay Medical Services from 1850 to 1853. While in India, Watson began to research Indian agricultural resources. In 1858, he became reporter on the products of India for the India Office in England. A year later, he became director of the India Office's India Museum, devoted to promoting trade in the British Empire. While there, he published several monographs on Indian plants and textiles. In 1867, he was appointed keeper of the museum, and served in that capacity until he retired in 1879.
John William Kaye (1814-1876) was secretary of the India Office's Political and Secret Department.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1990.03
Provenance:
Purchase 1990 A1990.3
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
The People of India. FSA.A1990.03. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Purchase.
Identifier:
FSA.A1990.03
See more items in:
The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations, with Descriptive Letterpress, of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc319eb8b77-b56e-4af8-a83c-0a99ab8df903
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-fsa-a1990-03
Online Media:

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