É. Apor , H. Wang (ed.): Catalogue of the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Comp. by John Falconer, Ágnes Kárteszi, Ágnes Kelecsényi, Lilla Russell-Smith.
FALCONER John and RUSSELL-SMITH Lilla - Catalogue of Photographs Taken or Collected by Sir Aurel Stein
CATALOGUE OF PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN OR COLLECTED BY SIR AUREL STEIN John Falconer and Lilla Russell-Smith INTRODUCTION The present listing of the photograph collections of Sir Aurel Stein is the result of a number of working visits to Budapest by the cataloguers over three years, 19992002. The photographs had not previously been examined in any detail, and the contents of the collection were largely unknown. The first visit, made in 1999, swiftly led to the realisation that the photographic collection was of major importance both for the study of Stein's own career and achievements, and as a resource for the study of early twentieth century archaeology in Central Asia and the Middle East. Apart from the size of the collection, which was a good deal larger than initially anticipated, early investigation soon revealed that it held much that was unique and unavailable in other institutions such as the British Library. It was, therefore, decided that as full a listing of this material as possible should be undertaken, and that for convenience, it should parallel the existing catalogue of Stein photographs in the British Library as far as possible. The collection Sir Aurel Stein took up photography in the 1890s and for the remainder of his career it formed an important documentary tool in his archaeological and geographical work. In addition to his use of the medium as a professional tool, Stein used photography extensively to produce illustrations for the popular accounts of his travels, such as Sand-buried Ruins ofKhotan and Ruins of Desert Cathay , and there are probably in the region of 20,000 of his photographs surviving in various collections. Of these, the photographs in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British Library are probably the most comprehensive, while significant smaller tranches of material are held in, among other places, the Royal Asiatic Society in London and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Although a certain amount of duplication exists between these collections and those in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of 159
