Franklin M. Biebel photograph albums of mosaics
Scope and Contents
Assembled by Biebel around 1955, the albums include photographs, plans, and documentary information on floor mosaics from Byzantium and the West. It also includes one album of coptic textiles. The most extensive coverage is of the Gerasa (Jerash) mosaics. Other regions represented include: Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Russia, and Syria.
Album titles are transcribed from typewritten labels on album spines except for text within parentheses.
Dates
- Creation: approximately 1950s
Conditions Governing Access
An appointment is required for access to these papers. To request an appointment, fill out the online form:http://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/access-and-hours/schedule-an-appointment.
For research queries, contact the staff of Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives (library@doaks.org).
Conditions Governing Use
Reproductions of collection materials are for research and study purposes only.
Extent
6 linear feet (31 photograph albums)Biographical / Historical
Franklin Biebel (1909-1966) became the second director of the Frick Collection in New York (1951-1964) after previously serving as a lecturer and assistant director at the museum. He studied art history and archaeology at Oberlin College and Princeton University and was a Junior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks from 1941-1942 (for the second half of the academic year, he worked on the project called "Archives of Byzantine Art" or in short "Archives"). He published on many topics in art history, including the monograph Gerasa, City of the Decapolis: Mosaics (New Haven, CT: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1938).
Arrangement
Albums are in Biebel's original binders which organize materials roughly geographically by regions and cultural context.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Franklin Biebel donated the albums to Dumbarton Oaks in May 1955.
Bibliography
Franklin M. Biebel. Gerasa, City of the Decapolis: Mosaics. New Haven, CT: American Schools of Oriental Research, 1938.
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Franklin M. Biebel photograph albums of mosaics, circa 1950s (PH.BZ.006): Finding Aid
- Author
- Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University.
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- dca00015
Repository Details
Part of the Dumbarton Oaks Repository
Dumbarton Oaks holds archival collections in its Rare Book Collection, Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives, and the Dumbarton Oaks Archives. The collections include: the papers of noteworthy scholars in the three fields that Dumbarton Oaks supports (Byzantine, Pre-Columbian, and Garden and Landscape); image collections depicting objects or sites of topical interest to scholars in the three fields; Beatrix Farrand’s personal archive of letters and original drawings that document the development of the Dumbarton Oaks Garden; and institutional records and architectural plans and drawings documenting the history of Dumbarton Oaks. For more information about hours and to make an appointment to consult any of the collections listed here, please fill out the request form: https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/schedule-an-appointment