By Beth Bayley, former Byzantine Archives Assistant (2012-2014)
No matter how complete a collection may seem, it will always only tell part of the story. But it’s a part that opens up infinite possibilities. Continue reading
Category Archives: Robert Van Nice
New Finding Aids and Inventories from ICFA
The Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives (ICFA) is pleased to announce the publication of several new finding aids and preliminary inventories. Continue reading
Hagia Sophia Homecoming: Returning to Istanbul after World War II
Written by Beth Bayley, former Byzantine Archives Assistant (2012-2014) The Van Nices returned to Istanbul in June of 1946, a year after the European theater of World War II had ended. Robert Van Nice had spent the war years both in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working on drawings, and then in London, England, and Bern, Switzerland, working … Continue reading
Leaving Hagia Sophia: Istanbul before World War II
Written by Beth Bayley, Byzantine Archives Assistant All the talk about the Monuments Men and the role that Dumbarton Oaks played in World War II (as illustrated in our blog post about Harvard’s American Defense Group) got ICFA staff thinking about what else might be in our archives from that era. The following is another … Continue reading
The Influential Friendship of William Emerson
Written by Beth Bayley, Archivist Assistant We have previously mentioned William Emerson, the man who sponsored Robert Van Nice’s survey of Hagia Sophia, but who was he, really? Primarily, Emerson was an architect and the dean of the School of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1919 to 1939. He was also Van … Continue reading
Ephemera in the Archives, Part 3: Telegrams and Stickers
Written by Beth Bayley, Archivist Assistant Ah, the telegram! Before email and texting and chat, it was the only way to deliver news quickly. Flag semaphore, smoke signals, and carrier pigeons all had their flaws as communication systems, so when the electrical telegraph was invented, the world got a lot smaller, a lot quicker. Telegrams, … Continue reading
Motivation, Methods, and Meaning: Architectural Drawings of Hagia Sophia
Written by Beth Bayley, Archivist Assistant As we’ve mentioned previously on this blog, Robert Van Nice spent most of his life working on an architectural survey of Hagia Sophia. Van Nice may have been the most dedicated person to ever carry out such a project on the building, but he wasn’t the only one. Wilhelm … Continue reading
Echoes of Trips Past
Written by Beth Bayley, Archivist Assistant I’m Beth Bayley, and I have been continuing the work that Clare Moran did last year on the Robert Van Nice collection. Clare was able to assess the collection and complete a draft arrangement, as well as maintain an excellent processing blog. I have been using her notes to … Continue reading
Reminiscing over Sinai
Written by Jessica Cebra, ICFA Departmental Assistant The Dumbarton Oaks Annual Report recaps the institution’s initiatives and achievements of the previous year, including exhibitions, publications, lectures, and fieldwork. The reports for the academic years 1957-1958 and 1960-1961 modestly note Robert Van Nice’s leave of absence to spend “several weeks on Mt. Sinai assisting the expedition … Continue reading
The Basically Byzantine Singers
As a treat to start off the new year, we are proud to present the international debut of the Basically Byzantine Singers. Over the holidays, Bob Ousterhout managed to find the original cassette recording of the Santa Sophia song that we highlighted in our last post. Bob recalled that the Basically Byzantine Singers included himself, … Continue reading
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