Renewed Exposure to the Presence of Africans in Persia: Digitizing the Collections of Antoin Sevruguin Photographs in the Archives of the Freer|Sackler, The Smithsonian’s Museum of Asian Art

This is the first of two blog posts written by Xavier Courouble, cataloger of the collections of Antoin Sevruguin Photographs and the Ernst Herzfeld Papers at Freer Sackler Archives, Smithsonian Institution. This post explores the presence of individuals of African descent at the royal court of Qajar Iran.

Nasir Al-Din Shah and his Eunuchs.
Antoin Sevruguin (d. 1933). Glass plate negative taken before 1896. Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (FSA A.4 2.12.GN.51.02).

The group portrait photograph, taken by Antoin Sevruguin at the end of the nineteenth century shows Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar (ruled 1848-1896) among several of his personal attendants, many wearing the eunuch’s uniform, a high fur-skin hat and a long, loose robe over the trousers. Under Nasir al-Din Shah, the royal eunuchs, dominated by eunuchs of African descent, enjoyed power and wealth. Some of them obtained villages and lands belonging to the royal domain. Haji Sarvar Khan I'timad al-Harem, standing to the right of Nasir al-Din Shah, initially included in an imperial gift, held the eunuch most coveted position of chief of the royal harem from 1887 until Nasir al-Din’s Shah’s assassination in 1896. In that position Haji Sarvar Khan held the keys to the royal quarters and the harem doors. He controlled the other eunuchs of the royal harem, a total of 38 in 1887, and was an intermediary between the court officers and high ranking dignitaries, the royal women, and the shah himself. After 1896 he went to Tabriz to become Muhammad Ali Mirza's (the crown prince) head of the harem's eunuchs.

Nasir Al-Din Shah Supervising a Banquet for Ashpazan.
Antoin Sevruguin (d. 1933). Glass plate negative taken before 1896. Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (FSA A.4 2.12.GN.17.02).

 Nasir al-Din Shah's Intimate Relationship with the Royal Attendants

Born July 17, 1831 in Tehran, Nasir al-Din Shah, a younger son of Mohammad Shah, was named heir apparent of the Qajar dynasty through the influence of his mother, Malik Jahan. According to Abbas Amanat, in his early years, Nasir al-Din received only a haphazard education, largely isolated from the outside. He was confined to his mother’s residential quarters, where a host of eunuchs, maids, and playmates compensated for the noticeable lack of parent care. An Abyssinian eunuch, Bashir Khan, a purchased slave of Malik Jahan, was in charge of overseeing the prince’s affairs. Bashir, like other black eunuchs in the Qajar harem, was treated with a peculiar mixture of awe and intimacy. He was a capable manager whose severe side was complemented by a sentimental, sometimes childish temperament. Later on, when he became the Shah’s chief eunuch, Bashir took pride in his personal attendance to Nasir al-Din over the years. By contrast, a combination of gratitude, pity, and old grudges best characterized Nasir al-Din’s ambivalent attitude toward his eunuch. Bashir was executed under order from Nasir al-Din in 1859 in an outburst of kingly rage! Intimacy with maids and servants and their children, who often were his playmates, may explain Nasir al-din’s unreserved reliance in later life on the servant class. It was this class that first introduced him to the outside world and taught him values of friendship and loyalty. In a society accustomed to treating children as miniature adults, princes even more than other children were in need of moral support to take them through the difficult passage of early adulthood. The sheer political demands on Nasir al-Din to behave majestically, particularly when his apparency was perpetually under question, required that he adopt a mask of solemnness and gravity that could only be put aside in the private company of his attendants. This self-imposed façade of grandeur, so characteristic of Nasir al-Din Shah’s public life, was a defense mechanism painfully developed in his childhood and rehearsed in the privacy of his inner court to conceal his shyness and vulnerability.

Standing Portrait of Nasir Al-Din Shah.
Antoin Sevruguin (d. 1933). Glass plate negative taken before 1896. Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery   Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. (FSA A.4 2.12.GN.51.08).

The Collections of Antoin Sevruguin Photographs

 The practice of photography was taken up in Iran soon after its invention in Europe, and Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar was an enthusiastic amateur himself. The glass plate negatives were taken by Antoin Sevruguin who, in the late nineteenth century, had fully established one of the most successful commercial photography studios in Tehran, Iran, with ties to the court of Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar. Despite numerous devastating incidents throughout Sevruguin’s career–the loss of more than half of the glass plates in a 1908 blast and fire, and the confiscation by order of the Shah of the remainder of the negatives in the mid-1920’s--695 glass plates negatives survived and were purchased in 1951-1952 from the American Presbyterian Mission in Tehran (Iran) by Myron Bement Smith. Ultimately the Myron B. Smith Papers and his collection of Sevruguin photographs were donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1973.They are included in the growing collections of Sevruguin photographs in the Freer Sackler Archives.

In Fall 2012, 1,072 photographs were digitized and cataloged from the collection of glass negatives from the Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs; the collection of silver prints purchased by John Upton in 1928 in the Myron Bement Smith Collection, Subseries 2.12: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs; and the collection of albumen prints in the Stephen Arpee Collection of Sevruguin Photographs.

Nasir Al-Din Shah and Court with Bags of Money Owed to the Treasury.
Antoin Sevruguin (d. 1933). Glass plate negative taken in 1890. Myron Bement Smith Collection of Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery   Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
(FSA A.4 2.12.GN.19.01).

ONLINE RESOURCE

- AFRICANS IN PERSIA, photographs taken by Antoin Sevruguin, from the collections of Sevruguin photographs at National Anthropological Archives and the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- IRAN IN PHOTOGRAPHS, an online exhibition part of the Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- SEVRUGUIN RESOURCE PAGE, Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- MYRON BEMENT SMITH COLLECTION OF SEVRUGUIN PHOTOGRAPHS, Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- STEPHEN ARPEE COLLECTION OF SEVRUGUIN PHOTOGRAPHS, Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- JAY BISNO COLLECTION OF SEVRUGUIN PHOTOGRAPHS, Archives of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery , Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
- SAILORS AND DAUGHTERS: EARLY PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE INDIAN OCEAN, an online exhibition part of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art’s programming for Connecting the Gems of the Indian Ocean: From Oman to East Africa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- AMANAT, Abbas, Pivot of the Universe: Nasir Al-Din Shah Qajar and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831-1896, University of California Press, 1997. Abstract available here
- BEHNAZ A. Mirzai, The Slave Trade and The African Diaspora in Iran, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, 2005. PDF file accessible here
- CACCHIOLI, Niambi, Disputed Freedom; Fugitive Slaves, Asylum and Manumission in Iran, 1851 – 1913, in The Slave Route. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. PDF file Accessible here
- FLOOR, Willem, Barda and Barda-dãri {Slaves and Slavery}, iv. From the Mongols to the Abolition of the Slavery.  Encyclopædia Iranica, III/7, p. 762; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/barda-iv (accessed on 27 May 2012).
- MOGHADDAM, Maria Sabaye, African Diaspora in Iran: Zar Ritual and African Cultural Influence. ASA 2013 Annual Meeting Paper. Abstract accessible here
- RICKS, Thomas, Slaves and Slaves Trading in Shi’I iran, AD 1500-1900, in Conceptualizing / Re-conceptualizing Africa; The Construction of African Historical Identity. Edited by Maghan Keita. Leiden; Boston; Koln: Brill, 2002. PDF file accessible here
- SHERIFF, Abdul, The Twilight of Slavery in the Persian Gulf, in  Monsoon and migration: Dhow Culture Dialogues, Zanzibar: Ziff Journal, 2, 2005. PDF file accessible here



Frederick Douglass Birthday Celebration!

This Douglass portrait  and signature card was probably part of a photography album or assembled by a collector, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution. 

The National Park Service will celebrate the 197th birthday of Frederick Douglass on February 13th and 14th, 2015, with special programs and activities at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. This year, the Anacostia Community Museum will serve as one of several partnering locations for the celebration by hosting a special behind-the-scenes tour with a focus on archival materials related to Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass wrote his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

In Lessons of the Hour, 1894  one of Douglass's last major speeches, he addressed the issue of mob lynching of Blacks in the American South.  Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

The tour will provide a glimpse into Douglass’s life through his autobiographies and newspapers, photographs, and speeches. It will also highlight the efforts of a 1950s civic association, The Coordinating Committee of Anacostia and Vicinity, to preserve Douglass’s home.  In a  1953 letter written to the Frederick Douglass Memorial & Historical Ass., Charles E. Qualls voiced the concerns of the committee:

We believe that the Frederick Douglas [sic] Home and grounds can be  maintained in proper and fitting state for this great man.  All the people want to know is how they can help and that moneys raised and donated will be judiciously spent and wisely taken care of; that the home and grounds and proper protection of relics and cataloguing of books be accomplished.

The Coordinating Committee of Anacostia and Vicinity celebrated the success of their letter writing campaign for the upkeep of the Douglass home with a invitation only Soiree. Dale/Patterson Family papers, 1886 - 1990, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Dianne Dale.

The Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association was established by Douglass's second wife, Helen Pitts after he died to preserve his legacy and mange his possessions.  The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs began assisting with the upkeep of his home in 1916.  In September 1962 the home became a unit of the National Park Service and opened to the public on February 14, 1972.  Dale/Patterson Family papers, 1886 - 1990, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Dianne Dale.

This special tour will take place Friday the 13th from 1:30 – 2:30 at the Anacostia Community Museum.  It will be a great opportunity for the public to come out and view some of our treasures and celebrate the birthday of this great American.

Jennifer Morris
Archivist
Anacostia Community Museum Archives

Out of Egypt: a Napoleonic Study of the Ibis

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate no. 1

Thanks to the keen eye of Dr. Storrs Olson, a rare book was spotted in a reprint file in the Division of Birds in the Museum of Natural History and transferred to a more suitable habitat, the Cullman Library for cataloging and preservation. It is Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, by Jules-César Savigny (1771-1851). Published in Paris in 1805, the work explores both the zoology and the mythology of the Sacred Ibis and the Glossy Ibis in Egypt (QL696.C585 S38 1805). This copy once belonged to Alexander Wetmore (1886-1978), the Sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian who was a distinguished ornithologist; his signature is on the front paper cover.

Hand-colored plate from Description de l’Égypte (Typ 815.09.3210, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

The author, Savigny, had been one of the 151 members of the Institut d’Égypte, a scientific organization created by Napoleon to accompany his disastrous campaign with 55,000 troops in Egypt from 1798-1801. The ambitious goal set for the Institut was an encyclopedic survey of the ancient and modern country of Egypt. The “Savants”—the carefully assembled naturalists, geologists, mineralogists, mathematicians, architects, engineers, cartographers, artists, one musicologist—were left in Cairo after the British Navy under the command of Lord Nelson sunk the French fleet. When the formal surrender was made in September 1801, the British military demanded as spoils of war the Savants’ notes, drawings, plans, artifacts, and specimens, all collected under trying circumstances (to say the least), and the French, wanting to be done with the whole fiasco, agreed. However, zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire took an immovable stand, refusing to give up their work and threatening to destroy it all. The British eventually settled for a few trophies, including the Rosetta Stone.  

Plate from Description de l’Égypte (Typ 815.09.3210, Houghton Library, Harvard University)

With the gathered materials finally sent back to Paris, the veteran Savants published Description de l’Égypte from 1809 to 1828—which has now become a headache for librarians and conservators everywhere. It is a major undertaking both to catalog and shelve because the publication, spanning such a long period, is variously bound (up to thirty-five volumes), with four different issues of the first edition, and it is not easy to determine a complete set. It is also a backache. The outsize Carte Topographique measures about three and a half feet and the plates are in several formats, some unfolding over four feet, and quite heavy. Various copies have now been scanned so today it is easy to browse through the images.

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate 4

Savigny, despite being a trained botanist, was in charge of the invertebrate and ornithological portion of the Description de l’Égypte. His treatise on the long-legged and curved billed bird, Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, was printed before any of the published volumes of the Description de l’Égypte appeared but can be viewed as reflecting the whole of the encyclopedia. It is a detailed examination of both the biology and mythology surrounding the bird in ancient and modern Egypt. Naturalists of the campaign were fascinated that the ibis was not only portrayed so frequently in the tombs, on monuments and in sculpture but also mummified by the thousands. Savigny’s work contains six plates of engravings, some anatomical, others of the hieroglyphics with images of the ibis. The artists of the illustrations were Henri-Joseph Redouté (1766-1852), brother of the better known botanical painter, Pierre-Joseph, and Jacques Barraband (1767-1809); the engraver, Louis Bouquet.

It is an uncommon book. Sadly, the Sacred Ibis is extinct in modern Egypt.  

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis

The African Sacred Ibis in Pilanesberg Game Reserve, South Africa (photo by Hein Waschefort, June 2010, Wikimedia Commons)

Ibis Statuette, from Tuna El-Gebel (Hermapolis Magna (no. 209497, donated by President Eisenhower; National Museum of Natural History)

Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis, plate no. 3

A copy of Histoire Naturelle et Mythologique de l’Ibis in Oxford University has been digitized by the Internet Archive (the Cullman Library copy lacks the half title)

Burleigh, Nina. Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt (New York, 2007). 

Thomas, Janet. The Role of the Sacred Ibis in Ancient Egypt. 

Funerary Urn of Earthenware containing Ibis Mummy, 332-30 B.C.E. (Abydos, Upper Egypt, National Museum of Natural History; no. 055827)

African Sacred Ibis flying at Durban Botanic Gardens, South Africa (photo by Johan Wessels, September 2009, Wikimedia Commons)

Julia Blakely
Special Collections Cataloger
Smithsonian Libraries

Mosaic Plaque depicting an Ibis, 305-30 B.C.E. (Egypt; Freer Gallery of Art, F1908.66)