Ending Our 40th On A High Note

On Saturday April 9th, just as our 40th anniversary festivities were coming to a close, we had the opportunity to meet over 40 returned Moroccan alumni of US exchange programs. These professionals are at all stages of their careers, some are students, some teach and many others work in the private sector or in other areas of Moroccan civil society. They were involved in a variety of projects while in the U.S. and they shared with us some of their aspirations for the future.

Participants introducing themselves.
Participants introducing themselves.

Our day began with professor Dale Eickelman of Dartmouth College, who gave a talk titled “New Directions: The Tangier American Legation since 1976”. He spoke about TALIM’s transformation from its inception as a non-profit organization to its work today. The Legation and TALIM are opening up to more community involvement through events and programs. Professor Eickelman unveiled our latest initiative during his talk. The “Legation Scholars” program, developed by TALIM and local partners, aims to provide high school students from the Old Medina of Tangier with English language training and baccalaureate support so that they may pursue higher-level studies in the STEM fields. Many of the Moroccan U.S. alumni present at the talk expressed interest in becoming involved in these kinds of programs, through mentorships and other types of collaboration.  

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The Architecture of the Legation #architectureMW

IAA104905
View of the stairs at the north end of the east courtyard.

For Wednesday of Museum Week 2016, we focus on the architecture of TALIM.

The Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM), straddling both sides of rue d’Amerique ( زنقة اةمريكا ) approximately 20 m (75 feet) past the southernmost gate in the wall of the old medina, is a very interesting structure from an architectural perspective. It is a multifunctional structure composed of several buildings built at different times and in different architectural styles. Yet the structure as it exists today is remarkably unified.

TALIM, or the Old American Legation as it is commonly known in Morocco, turns 40 this year, but is housed on the site of the building given to the United States by Sultan Moulay Suleyman in 1821. For approximately 140 years the site served as the American diplomatic presence in the city, until 1961 when a new consular complex was built outside the wall of the old medina. The museum, library and cultural center that make up TALIM are housed in a historically significant structure, but it bears little resemblance to the original, single story building. It was badly damaged in the 1844 bombing of Tangier, and essentially rebuilt in an expanded form in 1848.

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New Images in TALIM’s Glass Negatives Collection

View of entrance facade with canons, figure in military regalia approaching
View of entrance facade with canons, figure in military regalia approaching

Guest post by Michael A. Toler, Archnet Content Manager, AKDC @ MIT

New images have been added to TALIM’s Glass Negatives Collection on Archnet. Currently there are approximately 250 images in the collection, currently representing a selection from five of the eighteen boxes in the full collection.  New images are added every week as they are cataloged, and scanning resumes this summer.

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First Images from TALIM’s Collection of Glass Negatives Made Available on Archnet

Rue Portugal
One of the negatives depicting rue Portugal

Guest post by Michael A. Toler, Archnet Content Manager, AKDC@MIT

The Aga Khan Documentation Center at MIT (AKDC@MIT) has recently made available via Archnet, a first batch of scans from TALIM’s collection of glass negatives dating back to the first decades of the 20th century and depicting various locations in the Mediterranean.

The collection of approximately 2,000 images is believed to be the work of photographer Paul Ruedi, a Spanish resident of the city of Tangier between 1900 to 1930. The collection of slides features more images of Tangier than any other city, but there are also numerous photographs of locations throughout Morocco, as well as sites in Algeria, France, Spain and other parts of the Mediterranean. To read more about the collection, click here.

The decision by AKDC@MIT to host the images on Archnet came out of a meeting that took place

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Morocco’s Music: Archives to Archnet

His Majesty King Mohammed VI Paul Bowles Library of Congress Moroccan Music Collection Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies
His Majesty King Mohammed VI
Paul Bowles Library of Congress
Moroccan Music Collection
Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies

It was the only way I could think of to get the opus of Morocco’s traditional music, recorded in 1959 by Paul Bowles and digitized by TALIM in 2010, into the hands of King Mohammed VI: have a leather presentation case made, embossed with the TALIM logo and dedicated to His Majesty.

US Ambassador to Morocco Dwight Bush now has it, and will present it at an appropriate occasion.  Morocco’s musical heritage will have been repatriated after more than fifty years in the vaults of the Library of Congress.

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