Country: Palestine
Collection Type: Museum University
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1930-1960
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Digital files
Website: http://www.birzeit.edu/institutes/museum

Birzeit University Museum is a pioneering art space that produces and promotes contemporary artistic practice as a form of creative knowledge and that offers instrumental tools for social change and cultural dialogue.
Birzeit University Museum offers exhibitions, collections and education programs. Most of Birzeit University Museum photographic collections are donated from individuals or institutions that they have worked with during the exhibitions or research workshops.
The photographic collection reflects the daily life of Palestinian in the last century such as weddings and so on.

Contact Details:
Name: Ayman Hashem Al-Shweiki
Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Address: Birzeit University, Birzeit, Palestine.
Tel: 00 970 2 2982976

Other:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Birzeit-University-Museum-متحف-جامعة-بيرزيت-689195884477463/timeline

Website: http://virtualgallery.birzeit.edu

Country: Iran
Collection Type: Museum State agency/ Ministry
Collection Size: > 50,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930
Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Film-based negatives Glass plates positives and/or negatives Prints
Website: http://www.golestanpalace.ir

The Golestan Palace is the oldest monument in Tehran. It belongs to a group of royal buildings that were once enclosed within the mud-thatched walls of Tehran’s Historic Arg (citadel). The Arg was built during the reign of Tahmasb I (1524-1576) of the Safavid dynasty (1502-1736). Agha Mohamad Khan Qajar (1742-1797) chose Tehran as his capital and the Arg became the site of the Qajar Court (1794-1925). The Golestan Palace became the official residence of the royal family. During the Pahlavi era (1925-1979), the Golestan Palace was used for formal royal receptions. In its present state, the Golestan Palace is the result of roughly 400 years of construction and renovations.

The museum’s archival holdings are comprised of photographs, paintings, and manuscripts from the late Qajar era, and in particular, the period of Nasser al-Din Shah’s reign (1848-1896), as well as a small library. Naser Al-Din Shah (1831-1896) became interested in photography soon after its invention, publishing essays on photographic processes, as did his successor Mozfar Al-Din Shah. As a result, students were often sent to Europe and eventually became teachers in Dar Al-Funun.

The Golestan palace houses around 48,000 photographs, the oldest dating from 1840. The collection is organized according to albums which were made by the Qajar court, and often, by Nasser al-Din Shah himself. The collection, which is partly digitized (around 6,000 images as of 2015), includes approximately 1,000 slides, 1,039 albums and 9,000 glass negatives. The photographs are of various processes and sizes, and were taken in Iran and other countries in Europe, Asia and Africa (e.g. Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Japan, Russia, Georgia, France, Switzerland, Morocco, India, and Italy). The holdings also include a collection of nitrate films from the early years of Iranian Cinema.

The collection is often referenced in books, articles, postcards, exhibitions, and academic research. Important publications include: Tehran features; Golestan Palace; Like Mirror. The collection is in part accessible to Researchers upon request.

Contact Details: Name: Akram Alibabaei
Email: [email protected]
Address: Tehran, Panzdaeh Khordad, Arq Suquare, Golestan Palace
Tel: (+98) 021 33113335

Other:
Dissertation reviews: http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/10352

Country: Egypt
Collection Type: Museum University
Collection Size: < 1,000 Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Prints Website: http://www.medicine.cu.edu.eg/beta/index.php/en/about/54-history/193-the-museum The idea of establishing the Kasr Al-Eini Museum was first initiated in 1976 by Dr. Mohammed Almenawi, the surgeon gynecologist and obstetrician who was general secretary of the Faculty of Medicine and responsible of the Museum, to present the modern history of modern medicine in Egypt. It was initiated to feature the oldest Faculty of Medicine in the Orient, which was inaugurated in 1827 by Mohammed Ali Pacha to introduce the European techniques in the Egyptian army. The Museum narrates the history of medicine in the Orient, confirming the historical role played by the Qasr Al-Eini School of Medicine as a linkage between medicine in Pharaonic (Ancient) Egypt and modern medicine. The library of the Museum houses numerous rare books and references, an encyclopedia on "The Wise Men of Qasr Al-Eini" or the biographies of 154 professors who lectured in Qasr Al-Eini, with their photographs. Some of these photographs go back to the 19th Century. It also holds various documents and manuscripts, tableaux of marble, portraits and statues. The collection is only available to the public on display; the rest requires permission of the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Cairo University. Contact Details: Name: Hisham Nigma, Director Address: Qasr Al-Eini campus on Al Manyal ar-Rawdah Island Tel: +202-2364-4665

Country: Lebanon
Collection Type: Museum
Website: http://www.beirutnationalmuseum.com/

The National Museum of Beirut is the main archeological museum in Lebanon. The collection started after World War I, and the museum was officially opened in 1942. The collection includes approximately 100,000 objects, most of which are antiquities and medieval finds from excavations undertaken by the Directorate General of Antiquities. About 1,300 artifacts are exhibited, and date from prehistoric times to the medieval Mamluk period.

During the 1975 Lebanese Civil War, the museum stood on the front line that separated the warring factions and the building and its collection suffered extensive damage, although most of the artifacts were saved through last-minute pre-emptive measures.

Contact Details:
Name: Anne Marie Afeiche, Collection representative
Email: [email protected]
Address: Mathaf Main Street, Mathaf
Tel: +961 1 612260

Country: Palestine
Collection Type: Museum
Collection Size: 1,000-10,000
Period: 1860-1900 1900-1930 1930-1960 1960-1980
Type of Material & Format: Digital files
Website: http://www.palmuseum.org/language/english

Under the slogan ‘Your pictures, Your Memories, Our History’, The Family Album Project initiated by the Palestinian Museum in November 2014 intends to document important aspects of Palestinian history, life, culture and society, including key incidents and well-know personalities before and after the Nakba.
The project aims to trace Palestinian history by collecting and digitizing photographs that have for years lain forgotten in cupboards and drawers. Taken from private albums, the old photographs show family scenes, Palestinian freedom fighters, schools, sports teams and ordinary people from different time periods. Interviews are held with the owners to contextualize the images before they are digitized and stored in an archive. This archive will eventually act as a collective, visual representation of this intimate side of life, history, culture and society in Palestine.
The project team has documented around 4,000 family photographs and conducted over 100 interviews in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Bethlehem, Jenin, Hebron, Nablus, Gaza, Acre, Haifa, Nazareth and Upper Galilee. Among the collected photos, the oldest one reportedly dates back to the late 1880s.
The project, which targets Palestinian families both in Palestine and in the diaspora, will soon be available through an open portal accessible from all over the globe. Each photograph to be displayed will be accompanied with the respective family name to which it belongs and with the family’s account of the people or events shown in the picture.
The Palestinian Museum building, which is currently being constructed in Birzeit – 25km north of Jerusalem – and will be open to the public in May 2016 is specifically designed to house archives. The Museum is also engaged in training its employees in this field, equipping them to deal with this kind of archival work. The Museum’s network of partnerships, digital archives and electronic platforms will also help to make this information accessible both to the local and global publics.

Contact Details:
Name: Lena Sobeh, Rana Anani
Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Address: 5 Al Sahel Street, P.O Box 101, Ramallah, Palestine
Tel: +972 2 2974797 / +970 0599357573

Other:
Blog: https://palmuseum.wordpress.com

Country: Qatar
Collection Type: Museum
Collection Size: < 1,000 Period: 1860-1900 Later than 1980 Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Website: http://www.mathaf.org.qa/en/ Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, founded in 2010 is part of Qatar Museums, led by H.E. Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Mathaf Collection, co-owned by Qatar Museums and Qatar Foundation, is now holding over 9,000 works, making it the world’s largest specialized collection of its kind. Mathaf organises major exhibitions, both historical and experimental, and large-scale education programs performing an important role as a center for dialogue, research, and a resource for fostering creativity. Mathaf hosts solo and group exhibitions by artists from the region, and events that explore and celebrate modern and contemporary art. The photograph collection includes around 1000 photographs, some dating back to the 1860s and others later than 1980s. It also includes old cameras and related paraphernalia If on view in an exhibition, the collection is open to the general public. A request has to be made in order to view objects in storage and permission is usually only granted to researchers, artists and visitors from other institutions.

Country: Jordan
Collection Type: Museum
Collection Size: < 1,000 Period: 1960-1980 Later than 1980 Type of Material & Format: Black and White images Colour images Digital files Prints Website: http://www.royalautomuseum.jo/default.aspx?Lang=en His Majesty King Abdullah II wished The Royal Automobile Museum to be built to pay tribute to his father the late King Hussein's eventful life and to commemorate his interest in cars. The museum does not have its own private photograph collection, thus making use of the Royal Protocol’s collection. However, some individuals have donated a small quantity of photographs to the museum. Contact Details: Name: Mohammad Darwish Abusair, Amira Faisal Al Hammad (Training and Development Coordinator) Email: [email protected] ; [email protected] Address: The Royal Hashemite Court, Al-Istiqlal Road Tel: 962-6-4637341 Ext5839, Mob 00962-777-943166 Other: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRoyalAutomobileMuseumJordan

Country: Turkey
Collection Type: Cultural organisation Library Museum 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://saltonline.org/

SALT comprises an extensive library that focuses on the arts, architecture, design, urbanism, and social and economic history, as well as an archive of physical and digital documents. The archive collections of SALT Research include Contemporary Art Archives, Ottoman Bank Archive, The Archive of Architecture and Design, Italian Embassy Archive, Saint Pierre Archive, World Council of Churches Archive, The Archive of Crete, French Press in the Ottoman Empire, Maps, as well as general photographs, family archives, magazines, newspapers, coins, lists, and plans. The collections includes photographs from the 19th and 20th century related to art, design, architecture and urbanism, and social history. Photographs were acquired by donation, deposit and purchase and the collection is still expanding. Formats include film based negatives, glass negatives and positives, positive prints, digital files, Black and White images and color images. Photographs are available at distance on an electronic database.

Contact Details:
Name: Sinem Ayse Gulmez
Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Address: Bankalar Caddesi, No 11, Karaköy-İstanbul
Tel: +90 0212 334 22 00