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Visual Resources Update February 2024

Visual Resources Update February 2024

Transfer of Andreas Alföldi Collection to the Hungarian National Museum

Two photographs of ancient objects sit on top of an open cardboard box of file folders
Andreas Alföldi collection files being inventoried, boxed and packed for shipping to Budapest.

In anticipation of moving into a much smaller space, we are making efforts to review all collections and consolidate where possible. We identified a small collection (one full vertical file cabinet drawer) of photographic prints that belonged to Andreas Alföldi. Alföldi was a Hungarian-born Late Antique historian who became affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Historical Studies in 1956 until his death in 1981. IAS has informed us that all his papers were sent to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest in 2011. After consulting with A&A department members we decided the best home for these photographs (of, mostly, iron age grave finds in Slovenia) would also be at the Hungarian National Museum. Michele Mazeris inventoried the collection, packaged and organized the transfer to Dr. Ádám Szabó (Department of Archaeology, Hungarian National Museum). We are confident this transfer will ultimately benefit future scholars of his work.

Progress report on Lantern Slides of Greece

A man in a hat leans on an old car parked on a dirt road at the edge of a body of water
An old steam boat in the foreground of a bay, with a small rowboat nearby and bright blue sky.
View from the top of a hill looking down into a small port with ships and a few buildings

Work steadily continues on the Greek Lantern Slides Project. VR holds 42 drawers of glass lantern slides of Greece containing around 4000 slides in total. So far, 10 drawers have been fully processed, which means: digitizing the image, scanning the label, inputting data, and geo-referencing location. At this point, twenty-one drawers have been digitized and are ready for data cleaning and geo-referencing. This project started in September 2021 and we are 80% done: Yichin Chen manages 2 students working on the project this semester and will hopefully finish processing the rest of the drawers this year.

Visual Resources in the Classroom

This month, Leigh Anne Lieberman had an opportunity to introduce the students in ART 466 (Sicily: An Architectural History taught by Professor Basile Baudez and Ph.D. candidate Sofia Hernandez) to Morgantina, a site in central Sicily that had a strong connection to Princeton for nearly 70 years. In this class session, Leigh shared stories about Princeton’s deep relationship to the site, as well as details about the ongoing excavations, The Agora Valley Project, for which she serves as the Data Director. The students were engaged, asking great questions, as Leigh reviewed the ancient history of the settlement, and we’re excited to follow up with them in a few weeks when Julia Gearhart visits the class to share more Morgantina gems from the archives.

Interesting Projects and Resources:

The Center for Digital Humanities at Princeton has a Call for Applications: DH for Hellenic Studies: Working with Ancient and Medieval Texts (due March 11)

The University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics presents Explosive Wace: twelve albums of cellulose nitrate negatives dating from 1902-3 by archaeologist Alan J.B. Wace.