Country: Jordan
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1960-1980Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White imagesColour imagesDigital filesFilm-based negativesPrints
Website: http://acorjordan.org/index.php/en/
The American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan was founded in 1968. ACOR promotes study, teaching, and increased knowledge of ancient and Middle Eastern studies with Jordan as a focus. ACOR’s permanent headquarters opened in 1986 near the University of Jordan.
ACOR houses a collection of more than 10,000 slides and images of Jordanian archaeological sites, excavations, and artifacts, including slides documenting ACOR’s Petra Church Project, from its inception to completion. These include slide collections of Jim Sauer (ACOR Director 1975-81) and the complete archive of Phillip Hammond who worked in Petra from 1963 to 2002.
A portion of the collection is currently being scanned for academic and eventually accessible to scholars.

Contact Details:
Name: Dr. Barbara A. Porter, ACOR Director
Email: acor@acorjordan.org
Address: POB 2470 Amman 11181 Jordan
Tel: +962 6 534 6117

Country: Jordan
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Prints
Website: http://cbrl.org.uk/british-Institute-amman

The British Institute in Amman (BIA) is an independent research organization in Jordan. The BIA works to build academic cooperation between British and local universities and other organizations engaged in research; organizes events including conferences, workshops, public lectures and seminars; provides facilities for researchers including a library, study space, guest accommodation, equipment, and fieldwork vehicles; and offers Arabic language training in cooperation with the Qasid Language Institute.

The institute’s origins are as an archaeological field station of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, which became an independent institute in 1978.
The core of the collection derives from the archive of the institute’s founder, Crystal-M Bennett (1918-1987) and dates from her years active in the field, principally the 1960s to early 1980s. The Institute also possesses numerous photographs donated by associated researchers. The collection includes around 15,000 photographs, which depicts themes of archaeology and heritage as well as ethnography.

Contact Details:
Name: Carol Palmer (Director) and Rudaina Momani (Librarian)
Email: director@bi-amman.org.uk and library@bi-amman.org.uk
Address: 102 Uhod Street Tla’ Al-Ali Amman, Jordan
Tel: .+ 962 6 534 1317

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Public/ National Archive Research center
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980
Type of Material & Format: Digital files
Website: http://www.cultnat.org

The Photographic Memory of Egypt (PME) program at the Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) is focused on the documentation and preservation of Egypt’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage through photography.
The PME program’s primary activity is to digitize and document photographic collections of photographers as well as important institutional and private collections from the nineteenth and early twentieth-century. These digital collections gathered from local and international sources currently contain 20,000 images and continue to expand. They are to be made available for researchers and to the public through an online database.
The collection ranges from photojournalism and the archives of key photographers practicing in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, to Orientalist photographs produced by photographic teams and studios operating in Egypt between 1880 and 1930, to vernacular images produced by local families documenting alternative social histories of Egyptian society from the 1920s to 1960s, to documentary photographs of key events in Egypt’s history as a nation.
The program is also engaged in a survey of photographic collections concerning Egypt and the development of a comprehensive timeline for the history of photographic practice in Egypt.
Publications based on the CULTNAT historic photograph collection include: Egypt 1920: The Photographs of Lehnert & Landrock (2006, CDRom); and Nubia Through Two Eras – The photographs of Antoune Albert (2008).

Contact Details:
www.cultnat.orgCULTNAT – Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural HeritageBibliotheca AlexandrinaKm 28 Cairo-Alexandria desert roadSmart Village, Giza, Egypt+20-3545-322

Other:
Online database to be announced

Country: Jordan
Collection Type: Research center State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Prints
Website: http://www.doa.gov.jo/En/index.php

The Department of Antiquities aim is the protection of antiquities as well the presentation of antiquities, including research, survey, excavation and site management.

Founded in 1923, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan was established under the management of Mr. Ridha Tawfeq who relocated it from Jarash to Amman. The main goal of the Department of Antiquities (DoA) at that time was to protect all antiquities defined according to the law as any movable or immovable object made, written, inscribed, built, discovered, or modified by human beings including caves, sculpture, coins, pottery, manuscripts and other kinds of manufactured products which indicate the beginning and development of science, arts, handicrafts, religions, traditions of previous civilizations, or any part added or rebuilt after that time. Additionally, the goal included research, survey, excavation and site management.

Leading British archaeologist, Lancaster Harding, was appointed as Director General of the DoA in 1936. His well-known book “The Antiquities of Jordan” is a reference to all those who wish to learn about the archaeology of Jordan.

Photograph collections of the DoA include the private collection of Lancaster Harding (1936-1956) containing 4130 photos, as well as Horsfield collection (1919) containing 119 photos, the Department of Antiquities of Jordan Collection (1955-1975) containing 989 photos, the Jerusalem Collection (1965-1970) containing 88 photos and the Jordan Archaeological Collection containing 367 photos.

In 2004, the DoA began archiving negatives and digitizing part of their collection. The photographs depict archaeological sites, artifacts or objects, and city views.

The collection is available to researchers.

Contact Details:Name: Hala Al-Syoof, Photo Specialist
Email: halasyoof@yahoo.com
Address: Jebel Amman Street, Sultan al-Atrash P.O. Box 88, Amman
Tel: +962 2 4644336, 4641275, 4644482, 4642669

Country: Palestine
Collection Type: Library Research center
Collection Size: 10,000-50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints Slides (positives)
Website: http://www.ebaf.edu

The Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Française (EBAF) was founded in 1890 by religious friars of the St Stephen’s convent led by Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange in Palestine. In addition to its primary mission in the field of biblical studies and archeology, the EBAF extends its scope to related disciplines such as history and geography of the Near East, ‘oriental’ languages, and connected documentation activities.

It holds an archive of 19th century photography, with many of the collections having direct relevance to the school’s archaeological pedagogy. The original holdings relate mainly to the fieldtrips carried out by the school in the broader Near-East region. It comprises around 18,000 glass plates in various sizes, of which two-thirds are negatives, and the rest mostly positive duplicates. These include stereoscopic views and rare autochromes. There are few prints from the glass plate negatives, although contact sheets exist for half the collection, which also includes albumen prints from pre-1914 commercial collections such as Bonfils.

The original holdings were enriched by three deposits: 1,600 glass plates from the French Assumptionist fathers dating back to 1896 and donated by the Notre-Dame Center of Jerusalem; 700 medium-format contact prints from a Spanish Dominican priest dating back to his time as a student at the school in 1929-31; 550 stereoscopic negatives dating from 1908-1909; and more recently, 2,200 scans from the White Fathers (Pères-Blancs) of Saint-Anne Monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem, including scans of 705 glass plates; 1,700 scans from the Jesuits of the Biblical Pontifical Institute, Jerusalem; and around 350 scans from the Italian Salesians from Beit Jimal (Palestine).

The contemporary holdings from the last 30 years contain thousands of film negatives in 35mm or medium format, as well as colour slides. These come mainly from the archeological surveys carried out by the school, and the trend has been to document endangered archeological and historical sites.

EBAF’s holdings are fully catalogued and accessible to researchers on appointment. The collection has been fully scanned, and there are plans for an online database. There are also cooperation arrangements in place with other churches in Jerusalem to help digitize their collections.

The EBAF collection has been the subject of many exhibitions in the region and in Europe, as well as several books: Distant Jerusalem, Holy City; Photographies d’Arabie: Hedjaz 1907-1917; Al-Quds al-Sharif, Patrimoine musulman de la Vieille Ville de Jérusalem: Photographies 1890-1925; Souvenirs d’Orient; Jerusalem: A Principios Del Siglo XX, Patrimonio y Cultura; Pilgrims to Makkah 1908; Itineraires Bibliques; The Empire and the Kingdom: Jordan as seen by the École biblique et archéologique francaise de Jérusalem (1893-1935); Jérusalem et la Palestine à travers la collection photographique de l’Ecole biblique de Jérusalem (directed by Elias Sanbar, ed. Hazan, Paris, 2013). More recent exhibitions, with printed catalogues, include: Chateaubriand, itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem à travers les photographies de l’Ecole biblique de Jérusalem (Paris, 2013); Chrétiens d’Orient (Paris, 2014); Gerusalemme fotografata. Immagini d’all’archivio dell’Ecole biblique et archéologique française di Gerusalemme 1870-1935 (Lugano, Museo Cantonale d’Arte, 2014).

Contact Details: Name: Père Jean-Michel de Tarragon
Email: tarragon@ebaf.edu
Tel: +972 2 626 44 68
Address: 6 Nablus Rd., East Jerusalem
Other website: www.ebaf.info

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints Slides (positives)
Website: http://www.ifao.egnet.net
The French Institute for Oriental Archaeology (IFAO) in Cairo is one of the major French research centers abroad and falls under the aegis of the Ministry of Education (National, Higher and Research).
The institute’s mission is to study the successive civilizations of Egypt from prehistory until the modern era. The disciplines involved are archaeology, history, and language studies. The excavation sites of the IFAO cover all eras (prehistory, Pharaonic Egypt, antiquity, the Islamic period) and they are situated throughout Egypt (Nile valley, Delta, oases, Eastern and Western Desert, Sinai and the Red Sea).
The library includes roughly 90,000 volumes specialized in the fields of Egyptology, papyrology, Classical, Byzantine, Coptic and Arabic studies and a archive holding the photographic and scientific records of all the Institute’s excavations since 1971, as well as certain from before that year, plus a map library of some 3000 items belonging to 80 different series.
The photograph collection includes more than 300,000 photographs, consisting of 20,000 glass-plates, 100,000 silver negatives, 50,000 slides, some albums and contact sheets.
The library is accessible to the public but the photographic collection is not accessible.

Contact Details: Name: Philippe Chevrant (Head librarian) and Nadine Cherpion (Archival conservator)
Email: bibliotheque@ifao.egnet.net, archives@ifao.egnet.net , ncherpion@ifao.egnet.net
Address: 37, rue al-Cheikh Ali Youssef B.P. 11562 Qasr al-Aïny 11441 Le Caire – Égypte
Tel: + 20 22 79 71 600

Country: Iran
Collection Type: Research center
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1960-1980
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://iichs.org/index_en.asp

The Institute for Cultural Research and Studies was founded in 1986 with a mandate to maintain, organize and catalogue valuable historical documents acquired during and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 1996, it was replaced by the Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies (IICHS), a professional research center devoted to the study of contemporary Iranian history. Its objective is to undertake various research projects regarding social, political, economic and cultural aspects of post-eighteenth-century Iran, using its collection of primary sources.

The institute’s archive consists of public and private collections, memoirs of prominent individuals in various languages, historical slides, films and official decorations belonging to the Qajar and Pahlavi Dynasties as well as tens of thousands of photographs of Iranian and foreign dignitaries, events and buildings.

IICHS has a rich library, which, in addition to many old memoirs, travel accounts, journals and reports in various languages, holds many old and valuable manuscripts and lithographs dating back to the fourteenth century. The Institute has expanded its international academic ties, allowing exchange of documents between various scholars in this field. It also organizes lectures and conferences, commissions translations of significant scholarly works, and publishes research books and a quarterly journal, Iranian Contemporary History (Tarikh-e-Moaser-e-Iran). Its publications include The Revolution in Khurasan, The Historical Events Relating to Baning the Veil, and Mudarris and the Parliament.

The collection is partially catalogued on a database and is made available to researchers.

Contact Details: Name: Zohreh Moradkhany
Email: zo2mo@yahoo.com
Address: P.O.box.19395-1975, Tehran, Iran
Tel: +98 21 2260403738

Country: Lebanon
Collection Type: Library Research center
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980 Later than 1980
Type of Material & Format: Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Slides (positives)
Website: http://www.palestine-studies.org

The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is a private, independent, non-profit organization, established in Beirut in 1963. It is dedicated to documentation, research, analysis, and publication on Palestinian affairs, as well as the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The IPS began seriously collecting photographs in the early 1970s as a vital part of the cultural heritage and historical record of the Palestinian people. IPS is particularly proud to have amassed an archive in which photographs by Palestinians predominate.

Together, the various IPS collections total over 10,000 photos, many of them historical and unique, constituting a precious resource for those interested not only in the history of Palestine but also in the history of photography. The collections span the late 19th century to recent times, but by far the richest holdings are from the pre-1948 period. The subject matter ranges from Palestinian daily life (occupational, cultural, and leisure pursuits of all classes and population groups), through landscape and architecture, to military, public, and political activities and events. The some 400 photographs showcased in Walid Khalidi’s classic Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (first published in 1984) were all selected from the various IPS collections. With regard to the post-1948 period, the photographs cover in particular life in refugee camps, the 1967 war, and periods of the Lebanese civil war, including the 1982 Israeli invasion. The collections came to IPS by donation or purchase.

The most important of the IPS collections is that of Khalil Raad, comprising some 3,000 photographs dating from the late 19th century to the eve of the 1948 war. Acquired from Khalil Raad’s family in 1978, it constitutes the photographer’s own personal archive and is the largest collection of his work in existence. The photographs portray all aspects of Palestinian life, urban and rural, from the Ottoman to the late Mandate period, as well as landscapes, towns, and villages, religious and archeological monuments, portraits of prominent personalities (especially political and religious figures), and religious and public event.

Another important collection is the Jawhariyah collection, containing seven albums of photographs (around 859 photographs) carefully selected over a period of decades by the Palestinian musician and memoirist, Wasif Jawhariyah, and seven corresponding notebooks describing the photos, covering the photographic history of Palestine during the late Ottoman and British mandate periods.

Other holdings include: the IPS Photo collection, comprising 469 photographs, mostly from 1900 to 1948, donated to IPS by various individuals, families, and institutions; the PLO collection, comprising 107 photographs from the PLO Information and Culture Department from the period 1920-1948; the Fifth of June Society collection with 185 photographs by Khalil Raad covering the period 1900-1945; the Imperial War Museum collection, which contains around 202 photographs, and covers the period of the British mandate in Palestine; the Eric Matson collection, which includes around 229 photographs of Palestine under the British mandate originating from Jerusalem’s American Colony hotel and purchased by IPS from the U.S. Library of Congress; the Husayni collection, which contains around 55 photographs given to IPS by Hajj Amin al-Husayni, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, depicting the Mufti both in Palestine and during visits abroad; the UNRWA collection, comprising around 630 photographs given to IPS by UNRWA and showing the refugee camps in the early years, from the late 1940s into the 1950s; the Arif al-Arif collection, consisting of 412 photographs mainly relating to the 1967 war, including the Palestinian exodus it triggered and scenes of destruction; and the IPS photo archives, comprising some 3,500 photographs from various sources (e.g. the United Nations, PLO, news agencies) amassed by IPS over the years of pre-1948 Palestine, the June 1967 war (including military action, destruction, and Security Council meetings), and Israel’s attack on Jordan in 1968.

The collection is housed at the IPS Library in Beirut. It is catalogued and available on an internal electronic database, with plans to make the collection accessible on the website. The collection has been featured in journals including Majallat al-Dirasat al-Filastiniyah, Jerusalem quarterly and Journal of Palestine Studies, and in publications such as Family Papers: Social modern history studies of Palestine, and British Mandate Jerusalem in the Jawhariyah Memories.

Contact Details:
Beirut Office
Name: Jeannette Sarouphim / Mirna Kalash Itani
Email: library@palestine-studies.org / archives@palestine-studies.org
Address: Anis Nsouli Street, Verdun P.O. Box 11-7164 Beirut 1107 2230 Lebanon
Tel: +961 1 868387 / 814175 / 804959

Ramallah Office
Name: Sally Abu Bakr
Email: sallyabubakr@gmail.com
Address: 19 Emile Habibi Street, 4th flr. Al-Masion, Ramallah P.O. Box Ramallah 487
Tel: +9702 or +9722 2989108