London’s prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art has unveiled a groundbreaking initiative, making its renowned collection of photographs accessible to the public. After an extensive five-year endeavor, the institute collaborated with 14,000 volunteers to digitize over one million images from The Conway Library.
One of the highlights of this vast collection is a captivating series of photographs that offer a unique glimpse into the Middle East during the mid-20th century. These stunning black-and-white images depict various aspects of life in the region, including Yazidi celebrations in Lalish, Iraq’s Kurdistan, Palestinian refugees baking bread in Beirut, and the nomadic Bedouin communities of Jordan. Landmarks such as Aleppo’s Grand Mosque, Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri, and a medieval Armenian castle in Turkey’s Adana region are also featured.
The Courtauld’s website now hosts high-resolution photographs from the Conway Library, allowing users to explore and appreciate these visual treasures online. The Conway Library is a vast repository of over one million images that span the history of photography up to the present day. It encompasses a wide range of subjects, including world architecture, sculpture, paintings, and decorative objects. Notably, it also includes unpublished photographs showcasing the extensive post-World War II damage across Europe, as well as the images captured by TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, during his time in Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, the project incorporates 160,000 prints by Anthony Kersting, Britain’s leading architectural photographer of the 20th century. Kersting’s works provide a comprehensive record of his expeditions across the Middle East, offering valuable visual documentation of the region’s architectural heritage.
The digitization process involved the participation of nearly 2,000 in-person volunteers, ranging in age from 18 to 86, who meticulously cataloged and photographed each image in The Conway Library collection. The majority of these photographs had never been seen before, making the project a truly groundbreaking endeavor. Volunteers were recruited from diverse organizations, schools, and charities, including The Terrance Higgins Trust, The One Housing Foundation, BeyondAutism, and My Action for Kids. In addition to in-person participation, 12,000 volunteers contributed remotely online.
Reflecting on the ambitious project, Tom Bilson, head of digital media at The Courtauld and director of the digitization project, expressed his astonishment at the overwhelming response: “When we began the ambitious project to make The Courtauld’s Conway photographic library available online to the public in 2017, we expected no more than a handful of volunteers… Projects such as this have the capacity to transform cultural organizations by aligning it closely with new audiences that perhaps could never have been reached.”
The collaboration between The Courtauld Institute of Art and the thousands of dedicated volunteers not only provides an invaluable resource for researchers, historians, and art enthusiasts but also serves as a testament to the power of inclusivity and community engagement. By opening up their collections to the public, cultural institutions like The Courtauld are breaking down barriers and ensuring that heritage and art are accessible to all.