Fieldwork Project Correspondence and Administrative Records, ca. 1936-1987

Contains correspondence and administrative records, including: timesheets for assistant workers, expense reports, to-do lists, fieldwork notes, project-related correspondence, and personal correspondence intermingled with Van Nice’s work correspondence. These records document Van Nice’s multi-faceted role in the project. He was the project’s principal investigator as an architectural surveyor and draftsman, but he was also a researcher, manager, and occasional tour guide for visitors to Hagia Sophia. Some of Van Nice’s early letters are carbon copies of original letters sent to William Emerson, which can be found in Subgroup 1, Series 1, Subseries 1. In addition to Emerson, the primary correspondents include: American colleagues such as Frederick Gardiner Fassett, Jr.; Turkish contacts such as Feridun Dirimtekin and Yavuz Birtürk; drafting assistants such as John F. Wilson; and Dumbarton Oaks staff members such as John Thacher and Ernst Kitzinger, among many others.

Some general correspondence is also included regarding other projects that Van Nice was involved in that were not directly related to the administrative work of the Hagia Sophia project. This correspondence includes thank you letters and other social correspondence, the records for other trips such as an expedition to Mount Sinai, and an interview that Van Nice gave for a Turkish radio program in 1950 (see Subgroup 1, Series 1, Box 6, Folder 57).