Collections

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 Romanesque Archive is a collection of approximately 5,600 black-and-white photographs depicting Romanesque architecture and monuments primarily in France, but the archive does include photographs of monuments in Spain, Italy, and Israel, as well.

The Romanesque Archive is a collection of approximately 5,600 black-and-white photographs depicting Romanesque architecture and monuments primarily in France, but the archive does include photographs from Spain, Italy, and Israel. Each print is labeled with the city, the name of the monument, and the location of the specific feature on the monument, and the name of the photographer. The majority of the photographs in the collection were taken by James Austin, the photographer based in Cambridge, England, during the 1970's and 1980's. The collection concentrates on important but little studied monuments such as Cluny Abbey, Vezelay Abbey, Saint-Denis basilica, Moissac Abbey's cloisters, the cloisters of the Jacobin Church of Toulouse, and the church of Saint-Trophime in Arles, France. The collection is strong in the monuments of Burgundy and southwestern France.

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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 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 Afghanistan Archaeological Remains Photograph collection contains photographs, postcards, drawings, and pages of text for an exhibition about Dr. Richard Edward’s Bamiyan photographs of 1968. Most photographs depict archaeological remains from the Begram and Hadda regions of Afghanistan, along with photographs of artifacts from the Kabul Museum. The objects represented in these photographs include sculptures of animals, people, and religious or mythological figures, as well as architectural fragments, medallions, and pottery vessels, made from materials such as glass, stucco, ivory, bronze, schist, and limestone. The Afghanistan Archaeological Remains Photograph collection is part of the Islamic Art Archives collection.

The Afghanistan Archaeological Remains Photograph collection is composed of approximately 1250 photographs, depicting Afghanistan sculptures, statues, figural reliefs, pottery, and other archaeological remains, the majority of which are from the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan. The photographs were largely taken by Dr. Suresh Vasant while other photographers included Dr. Richard Edrwards, Dr. Walter Spink, Dr. John M. Rosenfield, and Horst P. Schastok. Dr. Richard Edwards took his photographs of Bamiyan in 1968, while the others were likely taken by Dr. Suresh Vasant in 1971. There are approximately 64 photographs and 23 postcards from other institutions. Archaeological remains from the Hadda and Begram regions of Afghanistan comprise the majority of the collection, although there are many photographs of the Bamiyan (approx. 119 photographs) and Fauladi (25 photographs) regions, and of objects from the regions Mundigak (approx. 34 photographs), Fondukistan (approx. 23 photographs) and Surkh Kotal (approx. 38 photographs). The photographs highlight objects made of stucco, terracotta, glass, ivory, stone, and schist, and include sculptures of animals, people, and religious or mythological figures, as well as architectural fragments, medallions, and pottery vessels. General views of archaeological sites such as Bamiyan and Fauladi are also depicted in the photographs.The Afghanistan Archaeological Remains Photograph collection is part of the Islamic Art Archives collection.

The collection contains 11,469 black & white and color slides intended for classroom and/or coursework. Nearly all the slides are attributed with the artwork’s title, artist’s name, and artwork’s date. Occasionally, the institutional site of the artwork (i.e. museum, gallery) is stated on the slide. Approximately eighty percent of the slides are filed under individual artist names; the balance is filed under topics and themes in the History of Art.

The collection offers students, researchers, and educators the opportunity to study and/or teach a survey of 20th century Modern and Contemporary art through various media such as painting, sculpture, illustrations, prints, photography, architecture, and site-specific art. In general it is categorized by the artists name, without distinction within his/her/their body of work or notation of the art movements in which the artwork belonged. The strengths of the collection are in the quality of the slide images and the breadth of artists who are represented, totaling over one thousand. A substantial portion of the collection is devoted to the category of painting, followed by sculpture. The majority of the slide images were taken of art in situ and/or from publications. Nearly all the slide objects are in very good condition. The collection is in the process of being digitized.

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The Palace Museum Archives Collection was part of a project from 1963 to 1964 to create and distribute a photographic record of the holdings of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. The archive is composed of three primary collections, the National Palace Museum (NPMT), the Chinese Art Treasures (CAT), and Chien-Mu, and contains the negatives and master file prints of all the photographs taken throughout the project.

The Palace Museum Archives Collection was part of a project from 1963 to 1964 to create and distribute a photographic record of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan's holdings. The archive contains two main series, which reflect the two mediums of the collection, Negatives and Master Files. The Negatives were originally produced during the photograph reproduction project at NPMT, while the Master Files are the black and white prints of the negatives. These series are further divided by the three main collections that make up the PMA, the National Palace Museum (NPMT), the Chinese Art Treasures (CAT), and the Chien-Mu. The photographs and negatives within these collections are then arranged by the dynasty during which the original artwork was created and finally by the medium.

The NPMT and CAT both contain paintings, various albums, and various medias. The Painting series contains handscrolls, hanging scrolls, calligraphy, and portraits. The portraits contain approximately 79 portraits of various emperors of China. For many of them, the artist and the dynasty they were commissioned during are unknown. Several of the earliest paintings depict mythical emperors or subjects who did not have portraits painted of them during their lifetimes. The Various Albums contains approximately 42 multi-leaf painting albums and they contain various artists, subjects, and dynasties. The Various Medias series contains photographs of objects made from bronze, ceramic, fa-lang, ink stone, ink sticks, jade, k'ossu, lacquer, silver, or wood. The Chien-Mu collection only contains handscrolls, hanging scrolls, and various albums and these items are generally understood to be lesser or more unreliable in terms of authenticity than those found in the NPMT or CAT.

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The Sinai Archives collection contains the negatives for black & white photographs taken of the Holy Monastery at Mount Sinai in Egypt, also known as St. Catherine's Monastery. The photographs were taken as part of a series of four expeditions between 1958 and 1965 to document the monastery and its holdings, they include details of the monastic buildings, the mosaics and frescoes, the liturgical objects, and the extensive collection of icons and manuscripts.

The Sinai Archives collection comprises a series of black & white negatives, which were taken during the expeditions to the Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, undertaken by the Universities of Michigan and Princeton with courtesies extended by the University of Alexandria. Photography was under the direction of the University of Michigan. The negatives are the product of four campaigns in 1958, 1960, 1963, and 1965. They recorded every detail of the sixth century Justiniac Church of Saint Catherine, as well as the monastic buildings, the mosaics and frescoes of the church, the monastery's liturgical objects contained in the church's treasury, and the extensive collection of icons and manuscripts. The collection is arranged into five series based on the type of the photographed material, including icons, architecture, mosaics, manuscripts, and objects.

The Oleg Grabar collection is comprised of approximately 580 photographs, slides, and negatives compiled during Dr. Grabar's research and expeditions to Syria, Israel, and Jordan. Grabar specialized in the architecture of the seventh and eighth centuries of the Umayyad dynasty. Later his interests broadened to include the architecture of Jerusalem under Islamic rule, Arabic and Persian illustrated manuscripts and ornament, and contemporary Islamic architecture.

The Oleg Grabar collection is comprised of approximately 580 photographs, slides, and negatives compiled during Dr. Grabar's research and expeditions to Syria, Israel, and Jordan. Grabar specialized in the architecture of the seventh and eighth centuries of the Umayyad dynasty but later his interests broadened to include the architecture of Jerusalem under Islamic rule, Arabic and Persian illustrated manuscripts and ornament, and contemporary Islamic architecture. The collection is divided into three main series, the Photograph series, the Negatives series, and the Slides series. The Photograph and Negatives series contains photographs and negatives produced during the excavations of Qasr al-Hayr al-sharqi in Syria between 1964 and 1971. The Slides series is comprised of the slides created from Dr. Grabar's research and travel throughout Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and Iran. The slides have been digitized and are available online.

Additional materials regarding Dr. Oleg Grabar and the excavation of Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi can be found at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. The Kelsey holds the excavation records from the site and correspondence regarding the dig (October 1962-September 1998), publications, maps, drawings, and more.

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The Ajanta Caves collection is composed of approximately 2,500 black-and-white photographs of the Ajanta caves in Maharashtra, India. The photographs depict 29 of the 31 rock-cut caves within the Ajanta complex taken by Dr. Walter Spink during the course of his research in the latter half of the 20th century.

The Ajanta Caves collection is composed of approximately 2,500 black-and-white photographs of the Ajanta caves. The photographs depict 29 of the 31 rock-cut caves within the Ajanta complex and were taken by Dr. Walter Spink during the course of his research in the latter half of the 20th century. The prints depict panoramic views of the complex, as well as detailed photographs of the façade, porch, court, and interiors of each cave. The prints of the interiors capture plasters, shrines, and detailed carvings within the caves.