Since the invention of photography, the discipline of archaeology and its forerunners were quick to embrace the new technology that provided another tool to visually map ancient sites and “read” ruins and fragments from the past. The ruins of the ancient past in the Greco-Roman world around the Mediterranean and beyond became the objects of photographic campaigns and expeditions that captured the status of ancient urban centers and sites in their current state of preservation.
Several 19th-century photography collections document ancient sites throughout the Mediterranean region. Antiquities of Rome are featured in the Parker Collection of Photographs of Ancient Roman Architecture and Sculpture , and excavations at Pompeii are extensively documented in the Halsted B. Vander Poel Campanian archive, which contains 5,000 photographs taken by Tatiana Warscher, who systematically surveyed the site’s urban and architectural details as they were uncovered over 50 years (1912-1960).
Ancient Greek antiquities and sites are documented in the Gary Edward collection of photographs of Greece from 1842 to 1959, with almost half dating from before 1869; the George Niemann photographs, drawings and prints of archaeological monuments of Greece and Turkey (1873-1912); and the James Robertson views of Greece, Egypt and Constantinople. The extensive collections of Pierre de Gigord, covering the former Ottoman Empire, and the Photographs of the Middle East and North Africa include documentation of numerous archeological sites throughout the respective regions.
These areas are also covered by several sets of photographs or albums such as Views of Asia Minor, Views of archaeological ruins in Tunisia and Algeria, Rusicade: théâtre romain, Philippeville (1895); the rare early documentation of Iranian antiquities in the Album fotografico della Persia by Luigi Pesce (1860); and the earliest photographs of Palmyra by Louis Vignes (1864). The photograph archives of the photographic campaign to the Dead Sea and Petra by Vignes under the stewardship of the duc de Luynes is also housed in the Library.
Image: Louis Vignes (French, 1831–1896). Two-part Panorama of Great Colonnade, Palmyra, Syria. 1864. Albumen prints. Getty Research Institute, 2015.R.15.
Twentieth-century scholars’ archives with photographs documenting ancient artefacts and sites include the Einar Gjerstad research papers on Cypriot archaeology and pottery; the Ernst Kitzinger papers on early Christian, Byzantine, and early medieval art; and the Oleg Grabar papers on Islamic architecture in the Middle East and Central Asia. Also held is selected early 21st-century documentation of ancient sites, including the Karl Kuehn photographs of Turkey and Tunisia, the photographs of Palmyra by Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, and those of Caesarea Maritima by Salvatore Mancini.
Collections and albums documenting archaeological sites in Latin America include the Augustus Leplongeon views of Maya ruins in the Yucatan (1873); the Augustus and Alice Dixon Le Plongeon Photographs of Chichén Itza, Uxmal and Yucatán (1873-1901); Views of Aztec, Maya, and Zapotec ruins in Mexico taken by various artists (1859-1929); and the early views by Désiré Charnay found in Views of Zapotec and Maya ruins in Mexico (late 1850s). Inca ruins are documented by twentieth century photographers the Horacio Ochoa photographs of Peruvian sites and monuments and the Martín Chambi photographs of views and people of Peru; the Edward Ranney photographs of ancient Peruvian and Mexican sites.
South-East Asia archaeological sites are featured in Views of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and Photograph albums of Indochina, both by unidentified photographers. Indonesian antiquities are featured in the late 19th-century Views of Java. A 1966 perspective of South-East Asia antiquities was created by Wim Swann in his Photographic production materials for Lost Cities of Asia: Ceylon, Pagan, Angkor. Documentation of Indian antiquities are held in numerous albums including Louis Rousselet photographs of India; and Sri Lankan archaeology is recorded in Views of Sri Lankan archaeological sites by Scowen & Co. and Joseph Lawton.