[Iran] [Art] Qajar School Lovers in Embrace gouache painting on paper, nineteenth century, represents the courtly aesthetic, erotic refinement, and dynastic visual language that defined Persian painting under Qajar rule. The composition situates a princely male figure and his adorned companion in intimate embrace, reinforcing themes of aristocratic leisure, romanticized.....
Hand painted Persian textile depicting Shah Abbas I, nineteenth century, a monumental example of Qajar period revivalist visual culture that reinterprets Safavid imperial iconography to articulate Persian kingship, martial virtue, and historical memory. Centered on one of the most mythologized rulers in Iranian history, the composition presents a continuous figural.....
Burton, Richard F. First Footsteps in East Africa; or, An Exploration of Harar. 1856. Published in 1856, this narrative records Burton’s expedition to Harar, a walled Muslim city in present-day Ethiopia that had long prohibited Christian entry and was widely believed to be inaccessible to Europeans. At a moment when.....
Persici Vel Sopho Rum Regni Typus, 1606, presents an early seventeenth century European cartographic rendering of Safavid Iran, documenting how Persia was geographically understood and visually represented during the height of Safavid political authority. The map identifies the region within a broader network of imperial borders extending toward Russia and.....
Jocodus Hondius. "Persicum Regnum" Antique map, London, circa 1625. This bold map gives us the representation of Persia but unlike most maps of the last 500 years the Gulf region is not named "Sinus Persicus" but is titled "Sinus Arabicus," or Arabian Channel. This makes this map a scarce find.....
Damron, Bob, Lindsy Van Gelder, Pamela Robin Brandt, Hanns Ebensten, and others, archive of seven travel publications and related materials dating from 1987 to 2003, documents the development of queer travel infrastructure and the circulation of information necessary for LGBTQ individuals to navigate public space safely in the late twentieth.....
Peking and North China travel photo archive, circa 1912 to 1918, documenting the former imperial capital during the turbulent opening years of the Republic of China, when centuries of Qing imperial rule had only recently ended and Beijing remained the political and cultural heart of northern China. The photographs record.....
Gay travel guides published between 1978 and 2002 document the development of LGBTQ social spaces and travel networks during the late twentieth century. Printed guides of this kind served as practical tools for gay and lesbian travelers seeking safe environments and community venues in cities and tourist destinations. At a......
Burton, Richard Francis. Wit and Wisdom from West Africa. Or, a Book of Proverbial Philosophy, Idioms, Enigmas, and Laconisms, 1865, linguistic and cultural compilation assembled by the British explorer and scholar whose travels and writings contributed significantly to nineteenth century European knowledge of Africa and the Middle East. Burton’s work.....
Mallet, Allain Manesson. Nouveau Continent Avec Plusiers Isles et Mers, 1685, documents seventeenth-century European geographic knowledge of the Americas, including the widely circulated misconception of California as an island. Produced within the context of expanding French engagement with global exploration and imperial geography, the map records how information from Spanish.....
Underwood & Underwood stereoview archive documents Japanese religious practice, labor, and urban life during the late Meiji and early Taishō periods, when Japan consolidated imperial power and expanded its global presence following the Russo-Japanese War and First Sino-Japanese War. Produced in the early 1900s for Western educational and commercial audiences.....
Utagawa Yoshitora. Ichinoya Kassen, 1847, presents a mid nineteenth century ukiyoe interpretation of samurai warfare rooted in the historical memory of the Genpei War, a foundational conflict in Japanese military history. The print depicts three samurai engaged in combat, two mounted with swords drawn and one on foot wielding a......
Richardson, John. A Journal of a Boat Voyage Through Rupert’s Land and the Arctic Sea, 1851, includes illustrated plates documenting Indigenous life and natural history encountered during British Arctic exploration. The present group of plates depicts members of the Kutcha Kutchin, now identified with the Gwich’in people, presenting scenes of.....
Indian railway archive spanning 1869 to 1946, documenting the construction, financing, administration, and everyday operation of one of the largest transportation systems created under colonial rule. Railways transformed the movement of people, commodities, troops, and information across the subcontinent, linking port cities, pilgrimage centers, agricultural districts, and frontier regions through.....
Ruscelli, Girolamo. Arabia Felice Nuova Tavola, 1561, engraved map presenting one of the earliest modern cartographic depictions of the Arabian Peninsula during the Renaissance expansion of geographic knowledge. Ruscelli, an Italian humanist and cartographer active in Venice, produced this map as part of the sixteenth century revival and reinterpretation of.....
Damron Publishing. Damron Women’s Traveller. These late twentieth and early twenty-first century travel guides document the development of lesbian-specific travel infrastructure and the circulation of information necessary for safe mobility during a period shaped by persistent discrimination and uneven legal protections for LGBTQ individuals. Issued between 1994 and 2008, these.....
White, Edmund. States of Desire. Fodor’s. Gay Guide to San Francisco. Fodor’s. Gay Guide to New York City. Ferrari Guides. Gay Paris. Out & About. Gay Travel Guides USA Resorts and Warm Weather Vacation. Access. Gay USA. Damron Publishing. Damron Accommodations. These late twentieth-century travel guides and narrative accounts document.....
Waring, Edward Scott. A Tour to Sheeraz, 1807, travel narrative describing Persia during the early nineteenth century written by an officer of the British East India Company who journeyed to Shiraz in 1802 by way of the Persian Gulf. The work documents British encounters with Persian society at a moment.....
Sousa, João de. Vestigios da lingoa arabica em Portugal, ou lexicon etymologico das palavras, e nomes portuguezes, que tem origem Arabica, 1789, a foundational linguistic study documenting the influence of Arabic language and culture on Portuguese vocabulary. João de Sousa, an eighteenth century scholar of Arabic born in Damascus and.....
Underwood & Underwood stereoview archive documents Japanese religious practice, labor systems, and urban environments during the Meiji period, when Japan underwent rapid industrialization and imperial expansion following the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. Produced in the early 1900s, these images were designed for Western educational and commercial audiences.....
Guillet de Saint-Georges, George. Les Arts de L’Homme d’Epée, 1678, provides a structured dictionary of military terminology and practice intended for gentlemen trained in arms during the late seventeenth century, when European warfare was increasingly systematized through professional instruction and codified knowledge. Organized alphabetically, the work defines terms related to.....
Late Qing China and Philippines photo archive depicting military authority, public punishment, foreign presence, and imperial architecture circa 1910, in the years immediately before the Xinhai Revolution ended dynastic rule in China. The Chinese photographs show Beijing monuments, urban crowds, soldiers, execution spectators, and foreign personnel at a moment when.....
Damron, Bob (contributor); Collins, Andrew. Gay travel guides and newspapers (1978–2004). These publications document the circulation of location-based information used by gay and lesbian travelers to identify bars, hotels, and social spaces during a period when public visibility remained uneven and often restricted. Issued across the late twentieth century, the.....
Western travel photo archive depicting Shanghai, Chefoo, Beijing, and northern Chinese landscapes, 1930 to 1938, recording the routes, attractions, and social encounters available to foreign travelers during the final decade before the Second Sino Japanese War transformed movement through coastal and northern China. The photographs move between the commercial modernity.....
[Africa] [Women History] Mary French-Sheldon. Sultan to Sultan. Boston: Arena Publishing Co., 1892. Numbered edition. Certificate No 488. 435 pages. 9 x 7 in. Original red cloth boards with gilt title. Signed and inscribed by author. 26 full-page black and white illustrations, along with over a hundred smaller illustrations throughout.....
