Tag Archives: collections

Happy International Dance Day from AKDC@MIT!

Happy International Dance Day! In 1982 the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) decided to celebrate April 29, the anniversary of the pioneering French dancer and choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810) as a day “to celebrate dance, revel in the universality of this art form, cross all political, cultural and ethnic barriers, and bring people together with a common language – dance.” (International Dance Day – International Theatre Institute ITI. Accessed April 28, 2021. https://www.international-dance-day.org/internationaldanceday.html.) The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) exists to research and document the built environment of Muslim societies, but architecture does not exist […]

Join us for Books and Bites, February 26

MIT Libraries and the Aga Khan Documentation Center are pleased to invite you to “Books and Bites,” a new event hosted in Rotch Library showcasing recent library acquisitions of interest to Architecture + Islamic Studies. We will have an array of newly acquired books and other materials available for you to peruse, and your librarians will be there to answer questions. Come see what’s new, have a bite to eat, and chat with colleagues. Wednesday, February 26 from 5 to 7 PM Rotch Library Reading Room MIT Building 7-238 Light Finger Food and Refreshments Served

Rifat Chadirji Archive includes drawings of his 1966 building destroyed in January 2019

In this post Betsy Baldwin, Collections Archivist in AKDC@MIT, reports on some drawings recently discovered in the archive of pioneering Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji. A recent set of original architectural drawings discovered within the Rifat Chadirji Archive include drawings of the National Insurance Company Building that he designed for Mosul. Constructed in 1966, this building was put to a shockingly horrible use in 2017 when ISIS used it to execute people it decided had broken Islamic law, most notably young gay men who were thrown from it to their deaths. After the recapture of Mosul, restoration was considered. Unfortunately, the […]

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.

New Exhibition: Details, Delight, and Documentation

A new Archnet exhibition highlights items from the Stuart Cary Welch Islamic and South Asian Photograph Collection of Harvard’s Fine Arts Library. Welch (1928-2008) was a celebrated curator, lecturer, and collector of Islamic and Indian art. His professional positions included Special Consultant in charge of the Department of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a post he held from 1979-1987, and Honorary Keeper, then Curator of Islamic Art at Harvard University’s Fogg Museum from 1956-2008. He is credited with vitalizing the study of Western and South Asian art, culture, and aesthetics in the United States during the latter half […]

The Aga Khan Documentation Center shortlisted for the Mohamed Makiya Prize for Architecture 2018

A Press Release from the Tamayouz Excellent Award released today: Tamayouz Excellence Award is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2018 Middle Eastern Architectural Personality of the year, given to individuals and organisations, the Mohamed Makiya Prize. The Mohamed Makiya Prize was established as part of the Tamayouz Awards program of championing the best of architecture in Iraq and the rest of the world, it is an annual Prize open to both individuals and organisations who promoted, encouraged, campaigned or influenced directly or indirectly the advancement of architecture and the built environment in the Middle East between 2015 and […]

New Archnet Collections Page

This morning Archnet rolled out a redesigned collections page that will allow users to see more collections on a single page, and to more easily browse collections by category or in their entirety. The initial page shows thumbnails for all collections in a randomized order. Each collection thumbnail contains an image representing it contents, a title bar whose color corresponds to the category of the collection, a brief description, and the category name. Users can switch between categories either by clicking a category name at the bottom on a thumbnail, or by using the menu at the top of the […]

New Exhibition: Red Monastery Church Restoration

A new Archnet exhibition highlights the interior of the Church of Saints Bishai and Bigol in the Sohag Province of Egypt. Perhaps better known as the Church of the Red Monastery because of the red brick walls used in the construction of the monastery, the church was established in the 4th c. as a center of the large monastic community in Upper Egypt. It is remarkable for the vividly colored paintings covering about eighty percent of the the interior. The photographs in this exhibition show the interior after a decade-long restoration effort of the American Research Center in Egypt. The collection also contains an introductory […]

Highlighting the cultural production of seven countries

This week, Archnet highlights the built environment of the countries included in President Trump’s executive order of 27 January 2017 barring citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States. More than 18,000 Archnet records are tagged with one of the seven countries, including authority records, sites, cities, publications, images, and videos. While “Voices from Seven Countries“, displayed in the various locations of the MIT Libraries, highlights materials that can be checked out by anyone with borrowing privileges, the Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) holdings contain rare and specific materials related to all the currently […]