Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Biography/History
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Related Material
Descriptive Summary
Title: Monuments de l'Egypte ancienne et moderne
Date (inclusive): 1860-1869
Note
Dates from years Hammerschmidt worked in Egypt.
Collection number: 94/35
Creator:
Hammerschmidt, W., d. 1869, photographer.
Physical Description:
1 album (83 photographic prints) : albumen silver, 41 x 52 cm (album)
Photographs (23.8 x 31.4 cm) are mounted on rectos of leaves of heavy white card stock; photographer's name and stock number
stamped in lower left or right corner of each photo; numbers above and identifying captions in French below in ms. ink.
Bound in brown leather covers; gold-stamped cover title "Monuments de l'Egypte ancienne et moderne;" glossy textured white
endpapers.
Abstract: Album of photographs of Egypt by W. Hammerschmidt, from 1860-1869 when Hammerschmidt worked in Egypt.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Language of the Material:
Materials are in English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the
creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright
owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Monuments de l'Egypte ancienne et moderne (Collection 94/35). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
W. Hammerschmidt was a professional photographer, born in Berlin, Germany, active in Egypt between 1860 and 1869, where he
maintained a studio, selling photographs, and photographic equipment, and supplies. He exhibited his photographs of Egypt
at the Société Franc?aise de Photographie in 1861 and 1863, and at the Exposition Universelle in 1867. Cf. Focus East: early
photography in the Near East (1839-1885) / by Nissan N. Perez. New York: Abrams, c1988, p. 174; and the Encyclopedia of nineteenth-century
photography / John Hannavy, ed. London: Routledge, 2007, v. 1, p. 633, available online.
Scope and Content
Hammerschmidt's albumen silver prints, printed using a collodion glass negative, document the great mosques, temples, tombs,
and other archaeological sites of Egypt, especially in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel. Photos of Alexandria
include views of the Place des Consuls, and Pompey's Pillar. In Cairo, there are many photos of the Citadel, and the Mosque
of Muhammed Ali, as well as the area around the Citadel, including the striped facades of mosques and minarets, a strangely
empty souk, and a streetscape of Coptic houses. The pyramids in Giza are highlighted by a row of palm trees, and the body
and paws of the Sphinx remain unexcavated; only the great head of the Sphinx is visible in the sand. The album contains views
of many of the antiquities sites, such as Dandara, the temples of Luxor viewed from the Nile, the massive columns of the temple
at Karnak, the temple of Ramses III at Medina Habu, the colossal statues of Memnon near Valley of the Kings, and the temple
pylons at Idfu and Philae. In Aswan, feluccas, or traditional Egyptian sailboats, line the riverbank at Aswan, and there is
also a view of Elephantine Island in the Nile. The album concludes with the Great Temple of Abu Simbel near the southern border
with Sudan.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha (Cairo, Egypt) --Photographs.
Temple of Ramses III (Medinet Habu Site, Egypt) --Photographs.
Ramesseum (Thebes, Egypt) --Photographs.
Great Temple (Abū Sunbul, Egypt) --Photographs.
Great Sphinx (Egypt) --Photographs.
Mosques --Egypt --Cairo --Photographs.
Minarets --Egypt --Cairo --Photographs.
Temples, Egyptian --Egypt --Photographs.
Tombs --Egypt --Photographs.
Obelisks --Egypt --Photographs.
Bazaars (Markets) --Egypt --Photographs.
Sailboats --Egypt --Photographs.
Architecture, Domestic --Egypt --Photographs.
Islamic architecture --Egypt --Cairo --Photographs.
Egypt --Photographs.
Cairo (Egypt) --Photographs.
Alexandria (Egypt) --Photographs.
Karnak (Egypt) --Photographs.
Luxor (Egypt) --Photographs.
Aswān (Egypt) --Photographs.
Nile River --Photographs.
Citadel (Cairo, Egypt) --Photographs.
Isnā (Egypt) --Photographs.
Idfū (Egypt) --Photographs.
Philae (Egypt) --Photographs.
Saqqārah (Egypt) --Photographs.
Dandara (Egypt) --Photographs.
Egypt --Antiquities --Photographs.
Genres and Forms of Material
Photographic prints.
Photograph albums.
Albumen prints.
Architectural photographs.
Related Material
Additional information available at the University of Washington University Libraries website, where 11 Hammerschmidt photos
can be viewed in the International Collections Database at
http://tinyurl.com/4ncyc9f.
See also Souvenirs d'Egypte, 1862 in the Boni Collection at UCLA (**TR16.8 H183s), another album of Hammerschmidt photographs
of Egypt, many of them duplicates of those included here.