The collection comprises 18 salted paper photographs by pioneer Uzbek photographer and filmmaker, Khudaibergen Divanov. Fifteen of the images are photographs Divanov made prior to the fall of the Khanate of Khiva, and depict the city of Khiva, the capitol of the Khanate of Khiva in western Central Asia, and its inhabitants. The remaining three photographs were taken after the fall of the Khanate of Khiva in 1920.

Khudaibergen Divanov (1879-1938; Uzbek: Xudoybergan Devonov; variously: Khudaybergen Divanov; Hudaibergen Divanov; Hudaybergan Devonov), the son of Nurmuhammad Divani, a court secretary to the Khivan Khan Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II, was Uzbekistan's first native photographer and filmmaker. Divanov learned photography from William Penner, a teacher at the German Mennonite settlement at Ak Metchet. Divanov's landscape photographs and portraits of his family caught the attention of local authorities who objected to them on religious grounds. When their complaints reached Muhammad Rahim II, the Khan responded by asking Divanov to take his portrait. Satisfied with the result, he gave Divanov a job at the Khivan mint and made him the official court photographer. In 1907, Divanov accompanied the Kahn's vizier to St. Petersburg where he was able to further his photography studies, returning to Khiva with a Pathé motion film camera and other photography equipment. In 1910, he filmed and produced the first Uzbek documentary film which featured Asfandiyar Khan, who had succeeded his father as Kahn of Khiva, riding in a phaeton. Divanov's other early films included Architectural Monuments of Our Land (1913) and The Sites of Turkestan (1916).

.05 Linear Feet (18 photographs in 1 box)

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