Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Henrietta W. Shelton, Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation, Inc.
Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Purchase and partial donation.
1 Item (photographic print, b&w, 10.6 cm. x 14.9 cm.)
Container:
Item Print 136
Type:
Archival materials
Photographs
Gelatin silver prints
Photographic prints
Place:
Asia
Iran
Iṣfahān (Iran)
Date:
1880s-1930
Scope and Contents:
Additional information from Finding Aid reads, "Subseries 4.24: Photo File 24, Image No. 136: Isfahan. Entertainers in ballet skirts."
Isfahan (Iran): Portrait of Two Women in Elaborate Costume [graphic]
Arrangement:
The Archive contains Herzfeld's glass negatives which he arranged by general categories into 16 separate Photo files, irrespective of the number on the negative. He also collected photographic prints from many sources for study purposes. So far as possible, Joseph Upton has identified and placed these prints in the appropriate Photo file.
Biographical / Historical:
Antoin Sevruguin (1830s-1933) was an official photographer of the Imperial Court of Iran whose commercial photography studio was one of the most successful in Tehran from the late 1870s to about 1934. The astonishing range of Antoin Sevruguin's photographs, and the prolific output of the studio, provides today's viewer with an important resource for examining the cultural histories and hierarchical elements of Iranian society. They assist the scholar in studying architectural sites that may have been damaged or destroyed, or are unavailable for first-hand investigation. Increasingly, the prints are valued for their artistic elements that may sometimes overshadow their documentary value. Most significantly, Sevruguin's images form part of an ongoing history that links a distant past and place to the present.
Local Numbers:
Box 12, File 24, Folder 14, Image 136
FSA A.6 04.PF.24.136
General:
Title and summary note are provided by Shabnam Rahimi-Golkhandan, FSg curatorial research specialist.
Collection Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.
Ernst Herzfeld Papers. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Ernst Herzfeld, 1946
