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Catalog Data

Creator:
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Names:
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Collection Creator:
Herzfeld, Ernst, 1879-1948  Search this
Extent:
8 Items (Travel journals, various dimensions)
Type:
Archival materials
Diaries
Place:
Asia
Europe
Croatia
Iran
Iraq
Syria
Turkey
Aleppo (Syria)
Baghdad (Iraq)
Damascus (Syria)
Dāmghān (Iran)
Estakhr (Extinct city)
Fīrūzābād (Iran)
Hamadān (Iran)
Ḥamāh (Syria)
Ḥimṣ (Syria)
Iṣfahān (Iran)
Khark Island (Iran)
Maʻarrat al-Nuʻmān (Syria)
Naqsh-i Rustam (Iran)
Pasargadae (Extinct city)
Persepolis (Iran)
Ray (Iran)
Sāmarrāʼ (Iraq)
Shīrāz (Iran)
Ṭūs (Iran)
Date:
1905-1928
1905-1929
Scope and Contents:
The travel journals are in Herzfeld's handwriting in German. They have been transliterated into typed versions of which each page is faced by a xerox copy of the original, showing sketches and inscriptions.
- "Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 1: Travel journals, 1905-1928" is composed of eight travel journals which contain descriptions of plant and animal life, as well as comments on the countless people Herzfeld encountered, their economic and their social activities. The journals also contain descriptions of the practical daily problems of travel, especially with a caravan; the dreams or nightmares he experienced on sleepless nights; and a great variety of thoughts on politics, people or history which crossed his mind during the sometimes tedious hours of travel. Finally facts with archaeological significance in the narrow sense of ruins, buildings and artifacts, as well as topographical notes for the preparation of maps, were noted to be ultimately incorporated in subsequent finished studies.
- FSA A.6 01.01, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-47", provides first an account of a trip (October 25 to November 19, 1928) to Khurramabad (Iran) in which Herzfeld accompanied Reza Shah, and second an account of a trip (February 17 to March 19, 1929) from Tehran (Iran) to Kuh-e Khwaja (Iran).
- FSA A.6 01.02, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-81", provides an account of an expedition (September 2 to November 18, 1905) from Assur (Iraq) to Shiraz (Iran) ("Von Kalat Schergat nach Schiraz, 1905").
- FSA A.6 01.03, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-82", provides an account of an expedition (November 23 to January 03, 1906) from Shiraz (Iran) to Constantinople (Turkey) ("Von Schiraz nach Teheran und Constantinopel, 1905").
- FSA A.6 01.04, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-83", provides an account of an expedition (February 14 to November 14, 1923) from Berlin to Pasargadae (Iran) ("Tagebuch. Persien I, 1923").
- FSA A.6 01.05, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-84", provides an account of an expedition (November 15, 1923 to April 30, 1924) from Pasargadae (Iran) to bushire (Iran) ("Tagebuch. Persien II, 1923-1924").
- FSA A.6 01.06, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "N-85", provides an account of an expedition (December 1, 1923 to March 21, 1924) from Kabul (Afghanistan) to Mashhad (Iran) ("Afghanistan -Ostpersien I, 1924-1925").
- FSA A.6 01.07, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "S-7", provides first an account of a roundtrip (June 3 to June 29, 1911) Samarra (Iraq) - Sulaimaniya (Iraq), and second an account of a trip (September 12 to September 19, 1911) from Balad (Iraq) to Seleucia - Ctesiphon ("Samarra Tagebuch 2, Reise nach Sulaymānīyah und nach Ktesiphon Baghdad").
- FSA A.6 01.08, on which Joseph Upton's classification mentions "S-10", provides an account of an expedition (July 8 to August 27, 1913) from Samarra (Iran) to Asadabad (Hamadan, Iran) ("Tagebuch der Rückreise von Samarra 1913").
Arrangement:
In the original arrangement of the Ernst Herzfeld Archive, Travel Journals were included in a larger body of diverse material acknowledged by Ernst Herzfeld as his study collection. In the early 1970s, Joseph Upton, for research purpose, rearranged the collection and created a specific series (Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 1: Travel Journals, 1905-1928) for eight travel journals. For some reason, Upton has given these journals an accession number related to the series he created for the notebooks (Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 3: Notebooks, 1904-1946, 1957, n.d.) and for the Samarra material (Ernst Herzfeld Papers, Series 7: Records of Samarra Expeditions, 1906-1945), probably following Herzfeld's original organization.
Biographical / Historical:
- "Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879-1948) was an orientalist whose many talents led him to explore all phases of Near Eastern culture, from the prehistoric period to Islamic times and from linguistics and religion to art and architecture." [Margaret Cool Root, 1976: "The Herzfeld Archive of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 11, pp. 119-124."]
General:
It is impractical to include in the Index the name of every person or place mentioned in the Journals. These were essentially short-hand notes intended to remind Herzfeld of facts to be incorporated in subsequent finished studies. Many of the items, especially in N-81 and N-82, are topographical notes for the preparation of maps. Herzfeld tended to note everything he saw and heard, so the Journals contain descriptions of plant and animal life, as well as comments on the countless people he encountered, their economic and their social activities. The Journals also contain descriptions of the practical daily problems of travel, especially with a caravan; the dreams or nightmares he experienced on sleepless nights; and a great variety of thoughts on politics, people or history which crossed his mind during the sometimes tedious hours of travel. He even includes snatches of poetry. The items entered in the Index are, therefore, primarily those of archaeological significance in the narrow sense of ruins, buildings and artifacts, especially if Herzfeld inserted a sketch. He was accustomed on these exploratory trips to supplement the Journals with comprehensive photographic record (see the inventory to the photographic File) and sketchbooks (see the inventory to the sketchbooks). The circumstances under which the Journals were written often led to inconsistencies in the spelling which was sometimes again modified in printed texts. It might also be mentioned that there are differences in the transliteration of Near Eastern script according to the French, German or English systems, not to speak of the "personal" systems sometimes adopted by writers in the field. Since Herzfeld published in all three languages, all three systems occur in the catalogues of the collection; but I am confident that that fact will cause no particular hardship for scholars.
- Travel journals titles are provided by Xavier Courouble, FSg Archives cataloger, based on Ernst Herzfeld's handwritten sketchbooks captions and Joseph Upton's Catalogue of the Herzfeld Archive.
- Series title in Joseph Upton's Catalogue of the Herzfeld Archive reads, "Series 1: Travel Journals, 1905-1928."
Local Numbers:
FSA A.06 1
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Topic:
Achaemenian inscriptions  Search this
Ancient Near Eastern Art  Search this
Archaeology  Search this
Architecture  Search this
Art of the Islamic World  Search this
Excavations (Archaeology)  Search this
Cuneiform inscriptions  Search this
Cuneiform inscriptions, Akkadian  Search this
Cuneiform inscriptions, Elamite  Search this
Inscriptions  Search this
Inscriptions, Arabic  Search this
Inscriptions, Pahlavi  Search this
Inscriptions, Parthian  Search this
Middle Persian language  Search this
Old Persian inscriptions  Search this
Relief (Sculpture)  Search this
Sassanids  Search this
Textile design  Search this
Genre/Form:
Diaries
Collection 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, Series 1
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/dc398b63d43-935a-4991-809e-ff136c473d6b
EDAN-URL:
ead_component:sova-fsa-a-06-ref6208