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Aga Khan Documentation Center

Monthly Archives: January 2019

Archive of John and Caroline Williams

In 2017 AKDC@MIT received over 18,000 slides taken by John A. and Caroline Williams, author of Islamic Monuments in Cairo: The Practical Guide. The images in the collection document sites in Egypt and across the Islamic world over multiple decades. Currently a sampling of about 700 are available online, with more are coming soon. Of course the entire collection is available the Aga Khan Documentation Center for consultation, research, or use in publications. Learn more about the collections of the Aga Khan Documentation Center on our website.

Throwback Thursday at AKDC

Do you remember the LaserDisc? This video disc could be considered Archnet 0.1, in that it was an early vehicle for dissemination of visual resources on Islamic architecture.  “Images of Islamic Architecture. The Aga Khan Collection was a project of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard, released in 1985. It contained more than 30,000 images of Islamic architecture arranged by region. Invented in 1958, the LaserDisc became available to consumers in 1978. Movies and concerts on LaserDisc were found in most record and electronic stores, but the format never really caught on, so it din’t […]