Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Views of Asia Minor
2002.R.44
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution: Special Collections
Title: Views of Asia Minor
Creator: Rubellin, Alphonse
Creator: Svoboda, A. (Alex)
Identifier/Call Number: 2002.R.44
Physical Description: 64 photographic prints
Date (inclusive): 1860-1890
Date (bulk): 1865-1880
Abstract: This collection of photographs depicts ancient, medieval, and natural sites in Asia Minor. Contributors include Rubellin and
Alexander Svoboda.
Physical Location: To access physical materials on site, go to the
library catalog record for this collection and click "Request an Item." Click here for
access policy .
Language of Material: Collection material is in French.
In original order according to numbers on mounts. Arranged in a single series, Series I. Views of Asia Minor.
The photographs in this collection were taken in Asia Minor by various photographers, known and unknown. Sixteen photographs
are by the photographer Rubellin.
The Rubellin family (father and son(s)) operated a photography studio in Smyrna from the 1870s through the 1910s. In its earlier
years the studio, known variously as Rubellin, Rubellin et fils, and Rubellin père et fils, added the descriptive term "photographie
parisienne" to its imprint. Shortly after 1900 tghe firm became known as Rubellin fils. The firm specialized in views of ancient
ruins as well as studio portraiture.
Six images are the work of Alexander Svoboda. The remaining 42 images are unattributed.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Rights and Reproductions .
Acquired in 2002.
Views of Asia Minor, 1860-1890, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 2002.R.44
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2002r44
Processed and cataloged by Jamie Allen under the supervision of Beth Ann Guynn. The finding aid was encoded by Holly Larson
with grant funding from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Guynn updated the finding aid in 2021.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection of 64 albumen photographs taken between 1860 and 1890 depicts ancient, medieval, and natural sites in Asia
Minor (encompassing modern-day Turkey and Greece). Ephesus (14 photographs), Sardis (6), Smyrna (12), Rhodes (12), and Lindos
(7) are among the cities represented.
Ancient and medieval locations include the Temple of Diana and the theater at Ephesus; an aqueduct in Saint Anne's Valley,
Smyrna; Saint Nicolas Fortress, three medieval windmills, and the Knights' Castle on Rhodes; the Temple of Venus in Aphrodisias;
the ampitheater and Roman basilica in the ancient city of Pergamon; and the statue of Sesotris. Several photographs represent
early Christian sites such as the Gate of the Persecution, Saint Paul's Prison, the Tomb of Saint Luke, the Greek church of
Saint George in Smyrna, the Church of Polycarp, and the Church of Saint John at Ephesus, which later became the Mosque of
Sultan Selim.
Natural places depicted include Lake Gyges, the hot springs of Sardis, Mount Pagus, Two Brothers Mountain, and the Rock of
Niobe. Also present are images of nineteenth-century Turkish life such as cemeteries, barracks, yaykas (summer resorts), and
Yuruks (Yörüks, a nomaidic Turkish ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent).
Of the images in the collection, 16 are by the Rubellin studio, and six images are the work of Alexander Svoboda. The remaining
42 images are unattributed.
The photographs appear to be part of a mock-up for an illustrated book. The mounts are consecutively numbered by hand, from
207 through 276; six numbers are lacking (243-246 and 259-260). For additional photographs bearing numbers preceeding those
in this collection see Special Collections accession no. 2004.R.42, Views of Bursa.
Captions in French are hand-written in black ink on the mounts below or to the side of the images, with the exception of the
first mount, which bears a letterpress caption below the image. Several mounts have captions or extensive manuscript descriptions
pasted on them. All of the prints have a number corresponding, in most cases, to the first number in their caption. This number
can be found in a corner of the mount (even numbers are in the upper right corners, while odd numbers are in the lower right
corners). Many images have an annotation on the verso visible through the print, which appears to contain similar information
as the title.
The collection was digitized by the repository and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2002r44
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Architecture -- Turkey
Architecture, Medieval
Ephesus (Extinct city)
Albumen prints -- Turkey -- 19th century
Turkey -- Description and travel
Turkey -- Antiquities
Greece -- Description and travel
Castles -- Greece
Greece -- Antiquities
Indigenous peoples -- Turkey
Rhodes (Greece)
Sardis (Extinct city)
İzmir (Turkey)
Lindhos (Greece)
Clothing and dress -- Turkey
Yuruks (Turkic people)
Castles -- Turkey
Church buildings -- Turkey
St. John Church (Ephesus (Extinct city))
Aqueducts -- Turkey
Albumen prints -- Greece -- 19th century
Architecture, Ancient -- Greece