Giving Back: Sharing what is Lost with a Nation

“A nation stays alive if its culture stays alive.” 

-Nancy Dupree, obituary, New York Times, September 12, 2017

Nancy Dupree, founder of the Afghanistan Center of Kabul University (ACKU) passed away September 10, 2017. Shortly before her death, the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Film Center and Norman Miller, Director of the American Universities Field Staff Documentary Film Program, sent 22 hours of digital video files from a 1972 film project to our colleagues in Kabul at the Afghan Center. The project focused on documenting the town of Aq Kupruk, about 320 miles northwest of Kabul in Balkh Province.

Aq Kupruk, Smithsonian National Anthropological Film Collection, (sihsfa_2006_05_op_001)

These digital video files join over 100,000 items at ACKU documenting the history and diverse cultural heritage of the Afghan people.

Five films were edited from the project but few ever anticipated that the full 22 hours would ever be of significant interest. But that was before the conflicts that began with Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan and which continue to this day. Looking back over the past 45 years so much has changed and so much has been lost. This put the documentation of local life in places like Aq Kupruk in a much different perspective. But let’s start at the beginning.

In the early 1970s Norman Miller engaged documentary filmmakers Herbert Di Gioia and David Hancock in a series of innovative film projects based on comparative examination of particular cultures focused on themes related to variables such as social organization, modes of subsistence (e.g., pastoralism, agriculture, etc.), as well as factors influencing social change. The Afghanistan film project was one of these in addition to projects done in Bolivia, Kenya, Taiwan and China. The series—entitled Faces of Change —represented a high point in U.S. funding for anthropological filmmaking based on the educational value and presumed capacity of such films to foster broad understanding of cultural differences around the world.

On May 1, 1975 the series premiered at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn’s auditorium where Smithsonian Secretary, S. Dillon Ripley and anthropologist Margaret Mead provided remarks. Mead, then regarded as anthropology’s leading public intellectual, stressed the urgency of documenting non-Western cultures around the world before they ‘disappeared’ or their traditional lifeways were irretrievably lost. The event marked the formal launch of the Smithsonian National Anthropological Film Center (NAFC). While the promotion that Margaret Mead gave the Center as a place to carry forward documentation and preservation of indigenous and non-Western cultures might today appear somewhat naïve, the Faces of Change series was very much on the cutting edge of an ethnographic genre and in line with the mandate of the Center. What Mead and others also recognized on that occasion was that however important the filming of other cultural worlds might be to us, we—as ethnographers, photographers and filmmakers—could only acquire access to these worlds through the grace of local people like the Afghan villagers in Aq Kapruk. Moreover, the film records that were created through such projects were held not only for our own purposes, but held very much in trust for the peoples who opened their doors and lives to us.

Smithsonian National Anthropological Film Collection  (sihsfa_2014_02_image_001)

Thus began a collaboration between Norman Miller and the National Anthropological Film Center to archive all the films in the series and related materials resulting from this project. Over the past several decades the NAFC has archived the complete unedited film projects (uncut 16mm workprint with 16mm synchronous magnetic film sound track) for Afghanistan and Bolivia, the film elements for all the edited films, the camera original negative film “outtakes,” the original sound recordings, still photographs, paper records and study guides. The 26 edited films continue to be distributed by Documentary Educational Resources [hot link: der.org], a non-profit company with which the NAFC has a long and intertwined history. In 2017, Norman Miller, along with DER, completed a project to digitally remaster nearly all the edited films. The remastered edited films were also sent to the Afghanistan Center. These digital video files will be held in the Smithsonian’s digital asset management system; but this is merely the technical story.

What of the village of Aq Kupruk and those individuals who allowed the filmmakers into their homes and lives? What is known of them? We know that the Afghanistan people have continued to live through decades of wars. Not only have many been killed but their cultural heritage and that of their nation is imperiled. Norman Miller, the producer of the series, told us that the town of Aq Kupruk was badly damaged during the Russian war and Naim and Jabar, the boys in Naim and Jabar, one of the best known films of the five-part Afghan project were killed along with the translator who worked with the filmmakers. Undoubtedly, the lives of many other individuals and families have been lost or tragically altered.

Smithsonian National Anthropological Film Collection (sihsfa_2005_05_op_003)

We know also that Nancy Dupree—as someone who made it much of her life’s work to cultivate respect for and understanding of the Afghan people and their culture—was profoundly grateful for the digital video files that we transferred to the Center in Kabul. This, after all, was an essential part of the process of “giving back”—a process with which archives and archivists are now increasingly involved. Having done that, we can only hope that the 22 hours of digital film now at the Afghanistan Center at Kabul University will become a valuable resource for engaging reflections on what survives, what has been lost and how it might be regained.


Pam Wintle, Senior Film Archivist

National Anthropological Film Collection, National Anthropological Archives

John P. Homiak, Director
National Anthropological Archives



Sources consulted:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/asia/nancy-hatch-dupree-afghanistan-dead.html

https://lis653.wordpress.com/2017/09/24/nation-building-through-information-sharing-nancy-dupree-and-the-afghanistan-center-at-kabul-university/

https://digitalcollections.barnard.edu/object/yearbook-1949/mortarboard-1949#page/81/mode/2up/search/hatch

Ice Cream! Come and get your Ice Cream.

We have been having some interesting weather of late here in the D.C. region. D.C. can be a very hot and humid place in the summer, but that doesn’t stop tourists from visiting this city or from buying ice cream that will inevitably melt down their fingers in the heat. How did hot countries and countries at the height of summer ever get ice cream without the benefit of modern day freezers?

Dwight Eisenhower eating an ice cream bar.  AC0451-0000037.tif
Good Humor Ice Cream Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Well, ice cream and “ice cream trucks” actually has a long history. It is believed that ice cream originated in China starting with rice being mixed with milk and then stuck in the snow to freeze. Later the upper classes sent servants into the mountains to get snow so that fruit and juices could be added, creating an early form of sorbet. Of course, the working class could not afford such indulgences.

In the late 17th century, was one of the first places in Europe to serve ice cream to the general public was Café Procope in Paris, but it was still for the upper echelon and not a wide spread treat. Several early American Presidents loved ice cream, including George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson who created his own vanilla ice cream recipe . At this point, ice cream was more common, but it was still reserved for special occasions.

Good Humor Vendor with Pushcart. Neg. No. 92-11719.
Good Humor Ice Cream Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. 

Ice cream treats received some assistance from Carol von Linde, who invented industrial refrigeration in the 1870s. This invention along with many from the industrial Revolution made it much easier to produce, transport, and store ice cream and many other perishable items. Soon new and different flavors followed including the invention of ice cream soda.

“Won't You Have an Ice Cream Soda with Me” Sheet Music. Catalog No. 1982.0745.04.
National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center. 

It was through the cafes of Paris that King Nasser uddin Shah, of Iran, first learned about ice cream, but it was his successor, Mozaffar uddin Shah, who brought bastani, or ice cream to Iran. Akbar Mashdi (Akbar Mashahdi Malayeri) was the first Iranian to vend ice creams. He was famous in Iran and was known as far afield in places such as Los Angeles and Paris. Mashdi was born in a remote village in 1868 and worked many different jobs before selling ice cream. One of his earlier jobs was transporting tea and sugar to northern cities and bringing back firewood to Tehran. Mashdi became friends with Mohammad Rish, who had ties with Mozaffar uddin Shah’s courtiers. This is how Mashdi became familiar with the tasty treat that is ice cream.

People at Maydan-I Mashq's ice cream cart in Tehran. FSA A.4 2.12.Sm.01.
Myron Bement Smith Collection: Antoin Sevruguin Photographs. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. Gift of Katherine Dennis Smith, 1973-1985. 

When Reza Shah came to power Reza Khan, Mohammad Rish, and Mashdi seized the moment to found the first ice cream shop in Iran. Rish only stayed in the ice cream business for two years, but Mashdi would sell ice cream for the rest of his life. Due to a lack of modern refrigeration, Mashdi worked a lot in the wintertime and in the mountains near Tehran. People, including, Mashdi had to use natural refrigeration. To preserve ice cream during the hot summer months, they would dig very deep holes. Everyone from commoners to courtiers purchased ice creams from Mashdi.

Lara Amrod, Archivist
Freer | Sackler Archives


References
History of Ice Cream (Bastani) in Iran by Ahmad Jalali Farahani, June 2004
The History of Ice Cream by Emily Upton June 16, 2013

The Saga of a Battle Ready Volunteer: AKA A Diamond in the Rough

Places of business go through a lot of changes.  Archives are no different.  Seasons and interns come and go.  You have some volunteers for a year or two and others are around forever, becoming part of your work family.  They are indispensable.  The Freer|Sackler Archives has such a volunteer in Betsy.  She has been working here for fifteen years and rarely misses a week, unless she is off traveling the world.  Betsy is an extremely intelligent, quiet, and dedicated volunteer.  She volunteers several places in the region and the Smithsonian is very lucky to have her.  

Bonfil's photograph of Palmyra found in Smith Collection.

Betsy has worked on many collections for us, but none was bigger or more important than the Myron Bement Smith Collection.  Smith was a classical archaeologist, architect, and art historian from New York who had a lifelong devotion to West Asia, accumulating some 87,000 items documenting Islamic art and culture from Spain to India, with an emphasis on architecture.  Smith, like so many scholars of this era, was a methodical man who kept records of everything. This has ended up making his collection even more invaluable to researchers.  For example, some items, such as Félix Bonfils’ 1860s photographs of Palmyra have recently become invaluable because they are the only representations of these important sites.

A few years ago we hit a snag with the Smith Collection, which we thought was done.  We were immensely lucky to have Betsy as our wing woman. We had a researcher, who had worked with the Smith collection before, request something from the finding aid and we went to retrieve it.  Then something odd happened - we could not find the materials. It was not Betsy’s day in the archives, so we requested the researcher come back the next day.  We were hoping it was us just not looking in the right place, rather than something missing.

Myron Bement Smith and his wife Katharine.

Some of the recovered Smith materials.

The next day rolled around and Betsy looked for the materials as well, but, sadly, she could not find them either.  It was decision making time.  My boss, Betsy, and I talked it out and we came to the decision that all the physical locations in the finding aid needed to be checked.  Was Betsy willing to do this?  Thankfully, she was willing.  During this time, my boss and I were relocating some collections to better utilize the space in the archives.  We were moving glass plates and adjusting shelves when low and behold there, under a shelf, were the missing items from the Smith collection. 

There was another powwow about the Smith Collection and we all decided that Betsy’s check of the Smith collection should expand to the entire finding aid.  The ever hard working Betsy agreed because she wanted the collection to be accurate and as useful to researchers as possible.  She and I worked together even going so far as to re-label a good chunk of the boxes.  Wonderful things have come from overhauling this collection and finding aid, researchers from different areas of study have used this collection and we continue to get requests for this collection on a weekly basis.  All of Betsy’s hard work was worth it.  As she has said, she just wants the collection to be of use and it very much is.

This was a large, important project and Betsy had been working on it for years. So she knuckled down and went through it to make it better, to make it shine. Working with Betsy on this project was educational, meaningful, and wonderful.  I had the honor of getting to know this brilliant woman who volunteers for the Smithsonian and I got to hone my skills as an archivist.

Read more about overhauling this finding aid in Excavating a Finding Aid in Archival Outlook.

Lara Amrod, Archivist

Freer | Sackler Archives


Throwback Thursday: Squeeze Making

Blogs across the Smithsonian will give an inside look at the Institution’s archival collections and practices during a month long blog-a-thon in celebration of October’s American Archives Month. See additional posts from our other participating blogs, as well as related events and resources, on the Smithsonian’s Archives Month website.

With the abundance of technology that surrounds us every day, it’s easy to forget how we ever got along without it. Never fear, archives are here to help answer this and many more questions! For example, how did archaeologists capture and render a three-dimensional image in the early 20th century? We’re glad you asked. Before the invention of 3-D scanners and printers, there were squeezes.

The Sassanian Inscription of Paikuli (Iraq): Squeeze B.8, Middle Persian Version. 

A squeeze is a series of moldable paper, pulp, latex, or plaster that are layered on top of each other and moistened to create a wet pulp. The substance is then pressed, into a low relief inscription. When the material is dry and removed, it becomes a multidimensional mirror-image representation of the original inscription.

Paper squeezes being applied to an inscription.

Squeezes (bottom right) applied to Naqsh-i Rajab (Iran): Sassanid rock reliefs picturing Shapur I, mounted, with suite on foot.

Excavation of Pasargadae (Iran): Gate R (Gate house, palace with the relief): View of winged figure with paper squeeze applied on face.

The images shown here are from the Ernst Herzfeld Papers housed in the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. The Archives holds 393 squeezes from the ancient Near East, the largest collection outside of Iran and Iraq. To learn more, visit the Squeeze Imaging Project.

Chelsea Fairley
Freer|Sackler Archives

Iran in Photographs

Hakim Nur-Mahmud and Family, by Antoin Sevruguin. Myron Bement Smith Collection

Last year the Freer|Sackler Archives put together a team to digitize, research and catalog our large and growing collections of 19th century photography of Iran. The result is over 1,000 images in SIRIS, with greatly improved descriptions. The project is ongoing, but in time for the March celebration of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, we rolled out our new Iran in Photographs web page. 

Tehran in Winter, by Abdullah Mirza Qajar.  Photograph albums of Qajar Iran

The site is still a work in progress, so check back from time to time.  We will be adding more photographs from new acquisitions as well as an expanded section on the history of the development of photography in Iran, with representations from many of the photographers and studios who played .

David Hogge
Freer|Sackler Archives

Sneak Peek from the Stacks: And now for the returns...

Department of Anthropology Pottery Lab, NMNH.
Photo courtesy of Dave Rosenthal.

No, I’m not referring to election returns.  This month the National Museum of Natural History’s Department of Anthropology will begin the return of a vast collection of archaeological artifacts collected from excavations conducted by former curator Gus Van Beek (1922-2012) at Tel Jemmeh, Israel.  The return of the artifacts to the Israeli Antiquities Authority is part of the original agreement between Dr. Van Beek and the government of Israel.  His excavations at the site located in the southwestern region of that country near its ancient border with Egypt began in 1970 and continued for 11 years.  Israel allowed the removal of the artifacts found at the site by the Smithsonian Institution for processing and research at NMNH.  Dr. Van Beek set-up a pottery lab in the east basement of the museum where a dedicated staff of SI Behind-the-Scenes Volunteers sorted and assembled the ceramic sherds into the original vessels.  Some  loyal volunteers worked with Dr. Van Beek for more than 10 years at the task. The final report of this valuable collection is being produced by Dr. David Ben Schlomo of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is due for publication in the fall of 2013 (http://www.ajaonline.org/author/913).  

In advance of this return a large amount of the unidentifiable ceramic sherds from the site were donated to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for educational purposes in conjunction with their exhibition “Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures” (http://seethescrolls.com/).  Dr. Van Beek, whose career at the Smithsonian spanned nearly 50 years from 1959 to 2008, was a former student of the renowned biblical archaeologist William F. Albright. The Tel Jemmeh site is known to have been occupied between 1700 B.C.E. and 200 B.C.E. The donation of the sherds was by mutual agreement between the two institutions and with the full consent of the Israeli Antiquities Authority.  You can read more about this project at:  (http://www.examiner.com/article/smithsonian-gave-22-000-pounds-of-ancient-shards-to-dead-sea-scrolls-show-tex).  

During his 1970 to 1973 fieldwork seasons, Dr. Van Beek was accompanied by a Smithsonian Institution cameraman to document the excavations at Tel Jemmeh with motion picture film.  The footage forms the Human Studies Film Archives collection 90.14.1 [Smithsonian Institution Excavations at Tel Jemmeh, Israel, 1970-1973].  The nearly 2 hours of silent 16 mm original color reversal film provides useful visual documentation of the site’s organization to aid researchers in understanding the written analysis of the finds. Upon his retirement in 2008, the National Anthropological Archives formally accessioned the Papers of Gus Willard Van Beek.  Along with his work at Tel Jemmeh, Dr. Van Beek conducted research and published extensively on the traditional earthen architecture of the Middle East region.

Sadly, Dr. Van Beek passed away earlier this year. The Department of Anthropology will host a memorial event on Monday, December 3, 2012 at the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium from 2:30-4:00 pm.  The event will also celebrate the lives and careers of his two colleagues from the department: Dr. Betty Meggers, Curator of South American Ethnology and Dr. Don Ortner, Curator of Physical Anthropology.  Please join us on that day in honoring the unforgettable contributions of these Smithsonian scientists.

Mark White, Human Studies Film Archives
With contributions from Dave Rosenthal and Jim Krakker, Department of Anthropology, NMNH
and the technical assistance of Daisy Njoku, HSFA