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Dear colleagues,


The Image Collections and Fieldwork
Archives<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa>(ICFA) at
Dumbarton Oaks presents a new online exhibit entitled *A
Truthful Record: The Byzantine Institute Films*:
http://www.doaks.org/icfa/truthful-record. This exhibit aims to reveal the
context of the films created by the Byzantine Institute between the 1930s
and 1940s by combining them with archival records from the collection *The
Byzantine Institute and Dumbarton Oaks Fieldwork Records and
Papers*<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/icfa_pdfs/doaks-icfa-byzantineinstitute-dumbartonoaks-findingaid>
.



*A Truthful Record
<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record>*features
thirteen motion picture films from the Byzantine Institute, which
are stored and preserved at ICFA: one of the Red Sea Monasteries in Egypt,
eleven of the Hagia Sophia, and one of the Kariye Camii, both in Istanbul,
Turkey. The color films created by the Byzantine Institute’s photographer
Pierre Iskender provide significant testimony of the mosaics at Hagia
Sophia and Kariye Camii and the techniques employed to uncover and conserve
them. When combined with notebook entries written by Byzantine Institute
fieldworkers such as Ernest Hawkins and the brothers Richard and William
Gregory, the history of the films’ creation truly comes alive. Thomas
Whittemore, who founded the Byzantine Institute in 1930, made wide use of
the moving images, screening them for donors and patrons (such as Robert
Woods and Mildred Bliss), the Byzantine scholarly community, and an
interested general audience in the United States and Europe. The exhibit is
divided into three sections that investigate how the films were made and
how they were received by contemporary audiences: *Style and
Content*<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record/style-and-content>,
*Technique*<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record/technique>,
and *Purpose and
Reception*<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record/purpose-and-reception>.
You can also explore the archival materials chronologically using a
detailed *Timeline*<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record/timeline>
.


This online exhibit was created by Fani Gargova, ICFA Byzantine Research
Associate. The ICFA team would like to give special
thanks<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/a-truthful-record/acknowledgements>to
the Dumbarton Oaks Publications Department for their generous
assistance
and support throughout this project. For more information about ICFA’s
Moving Image Collection, please see our
website<http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/moving-image-collection>or
Vimeo
album <http://vimeo.com/album/2292509>.

Many thanks,
Shalimar

_____________________________________________
Shalimar Abigail Fojas White
Manager, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
1703 32nd Street, NW Washington, DC 20007
Tel. 202.339.6972; Email [log in to unmask]

Website: http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa
Blog: http://icfadumbartonoaks.wordpress.com/
Facebook: Dumbarton Oaks Library and
Archives<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dumbarton-Oaks-Library-and-Archives/188985567883483>


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