Collections : [University of Michigan History of Art Visual Resources Collection]

The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) Slide Distribution Collection produced color slides of Southern Asian art and architecture for teaching art history. The ACSAA Color Slide Distribution Project created and distributed 166 sets of original and duplicate 35 mm slides between 1974 and 2006. The VRC holds copies of approximately 148 of these sets.

The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) Slide Distribution Collection produced color slides of Southern Asian art and architecture for teaching art history. The ACSAA Color Distribution Project created and distributed 166 sets of original and duplicate 35 mm slides between 1974 and 2006. The VRC holds copies of approximately 148 of these complete sets. The sets contain about 100 slides each, with a total of more than 14,800 slides. The sets highlight various types of art, including Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Mughal, Himalayan, Baroque, Sri Lankan, and Southeast Asian. ACSAA and the University of Michigan partnered with ArtStor and approximately 12,000 images are now available online. Additional images are available through the VRC, as well.

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The Asian Art Photographic Distribution (AAPD) project was established at the University of Michigan in 1970 with excess funds left over from the Palace Museum Archive from the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. From 1971-2006, AAPD produced and sold sets of 35mm slides depicting Asian artworks from various museum collections and exhibitions.

Slides are grouped into sets based on the repository or exhibition of the artworks documented. The objects represented by this collection came from public and private collections as well as traveling exhibitions. Subjects cover a wide range of artistic media including painting, sculpture, calligraphy, etc. Geographic regions include China, Japan, and central Asia. Time periods covered range from ancient to twentieth century.

Supplementing the slides are two file folder cabinet drawers, approximately three linear feet in total, of documentation relating to the creation and sales of AAPD slide sets.

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The Borobudur collection is composed of approximately 4,000 color and black-and-white slides depicting the Borobudur temple. The collection contains slides from the Southeast Asia Art Foundation (SAAF) Archive and from Patrick Young's expedition to the Buddhist temple in 1983.

The Borobudur collection is composed of approximately 4,000 color and black-and-white slides depicting the Borobudur temple. The collection contains slides from the Southeast Asia Art Foundation (SAAF) Archive and from Patrick Young's expedition to the Buddhist temple in 1983. The slides depict general views of the temple and the complex from different directions. The collection also contains individual views of the reliefs on the balustrades and walls, as well as the stupas and the Buddhas.

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The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscripts Collection is comprised of Dr. Simpson's notes on Islamic manuscripts from around the world. The collection contains approximately 5,455 digitized pages of her notes pertaining to about 610 Islamic manuscripts from around the world. This manuscript collection spans the history of the Islamic book between 1300 and 1600 CE.

The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscript Collection is comprised of approximately 5,455 digitized pages of Dr. Simpson's notes on about 610 manuscripts. The collection also contains approximately 4,800 unprocessed images, which Dr. Simpson collected during her research. Simpson's collection spans the history of Islamic book art and pays particular attention of illustrated manuscripts from 1300 and 1600 CE. Dr. Shreve Simpson created a documentation template which she used during her research with each manuscript. The template allowed her to create a detailed record of the titles of each manuscript, names of calligraphers, painters, patrons, date and places of production, and dimensions of each folio or text block, as well as additional descriptive details. Her notes span 4 decades of research in libraries, museums, and private collections. The Marianna Shreve Simpson Islamic Manuscript Collection is part of the Islamic Art Archive Collection.

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The Southeast Asia Art Foundation (SAAF) Archive is composed of approximately 200,000 photographs of Southeast Asia artwork compiled by John Adams Thierry during the latter half of the 20th century. The photos are drawn from approximately 30 different sources, sculptures, or monuments throughout Southeastern Asia that have since been vandalized, damaged, insensitively stored, or destroyed.

Southeast Asia Art Foundation (SAAF) Archive is composed of about 200,000 photographs drawn from at least 30 different sources, including 10,000 photos from sites in Cambodia, Java, and Thailand, 1,100 aerial photos of unexplored archaeological sites, and approximately 3,000 photos from leading art dealers. The collection is housed in a series of black binders and is broken down into 1149 binders of images of objects from various regions and object types, 114 binders with museums' holdings and dealers’ photographs, 24 binders of aerial photographs, 2 binders that contain microfiche, and 3 boxes of photographs. Many of the photos depict sculptures or monuments that have since been vandalized, damaged, insensitively stored, or destroyed. Some of the sculptures have also been sold into private collections and are no longer accessible to the public. The photographs of Yves Coffin, a former French diplomat to Cambodia, are now considered one of the best collections of Cham and Khmer architecture and sculpture. Most of the aerial photographs of Thailand in the mid-1950's came from William-Hunt. Some of the microfiche in the collection came from the National Research Centre of Archaeology on Indonesia from 1901 to 1956, while more microfiche was contributed by the Kern Institute, University of Leiden. In addition to the approximately 100,000 photographs and slides, materials also came from an expedition to Java, which sent Patrick Young to photograph the Buddhist monument of Borobudur. The Department of the History of Art at the University of Michigan organized the expedition, which was partially funded by Southeast Asia Art Foundation and its trustee, John A. Thierry.

The collection also contains vast documentation about the legacy of the artwork and the archive itself, including work from leading scholars such as Carol Stratton, Sarah M. Bekker, A.B. Griswold, and Miriam McNair Scott. John Adams Thierry's research and additional articles are incorporated in the collection.

The photo archive is part of the Southeast Asia Art Foundation Archive, which is now housed in three locations within the University of Michigan. The University of Michigan-Museum of Art houses Thierry's collection of 19 sculptures, while the University of Michigan Library houses Thierry's personal library of books on Southeast Asian Art, many of which are rare or difficult to find.

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