historic photographs – Tangier American Legation Museum

Tangier Then and Now Virtual Exhibition

November 29, 2016 Leave a comment by Michael Toler

The exhibition Tangier Then and Now is now available on Archnet. The collection, an expanded version of the exhibit International Tangier now on display in Rotch Library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, contains selected, edited photographs from the collection of glass negatives of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies, paired with photographs … Read more Tangier Then and Now Virtual Exhibition

Diplomatic History, Events, Historic Preservation, TALIM

Photographs: Tangier Then and Now

November 7, 2016 1 Comment by Michael Toler

Europeans and Moroccans in front of Bab Dar Dbagh, ca. 1920

An exhibition in Rotch Library at MIT in Cambridge MA, features prints made from the glass negatives collection of the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies (TALIM) in Morocco. The photographs, which have never been exhibited in the United States, date from roughly 1900 to 1930, a period that saw the city of Tangier undergoing a growth that has been unrivaled until recent decades. Not only is Tangier now seeing a radical transformation due to new construction and infrastructure improvements, but there is also a growing emphasis on historic preservation of the built environment. The exhibition highlights that by juxtaposing the older black and white images against more recent photographs of the places depicted.

Books, Education, Historic Preservation, TALIM

Treasures to be discovered at the Legation

March 15, 2015 Leave a comment by Michael Toler

By Grecia Álvarez, MLIS, Guest blogger

Grecia, Dunya and Majda inside the rare books cage

When we started sifting through our collection to cull our rare books from the regular shelves and put them into their new home in “the cage” we never imagined we would find books dating from 1572, or even a parchment signed by King Philip II of Spain (Philip I of Portugal). In fact, we started out by pulling books dating from 1920 and earlier and soon found that our cage was overflowing, so that we had to cut back to books printed before 1911. Previously, these books were intermingled with our regular collection, which focuses mainly on Morocco, but it was decided that these books required special protection, and thus the cage, a small room with an iron gate, was born. Our rare books cover a breadth of topics, from early accounts of European exploration of the region, to government treatises, geographical studies, books signed by illustrious figures (including a book belonging to former Prime Minister of Spain Antonio Cánovas del Castillo). We even have copies of an 1889 edition of Washington Irving’s The Life of Mahomet and a first edition of Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad.