Historic Photo Archive of Yazidi People in Happier Times Discovered in Pennsylvania

Matt Growcoot
A group of men in traditional Middle Eastern clothing sit together outdoors, some looking at the camera; beside them, a man in similar attire rides a horse near a building on a hillside.
UPenn Museum Archives

The Penn Museum in Philadelphia has discovered and digitized historic photos of the Yazidi people in northern Iraq during the 1930s.

The treasure trove of images depicts a “thriving” Yazidi community and modern-day members of the community have rejoiced at their existence after centuries of persecution — most recently at the hands of ISIS.

Many of the photographs were taken by Penn Museum archaeologist and Assyriologist Ephraim Avigdor Speiser who led archaeologists studying ancient Mesopotamian civilizations and befriended a nearby Yazidi community, photographing them between 1930 and 1937. It depicts scenes of daily Yazidi life, including Iraqi vistas, rituals, work, farming, leisure, portraits, and family gatherings.

The photographs are almost 300 in number and were discovered this year by Ph.D. student Marc Marin Webb while researching cultural heritage preservation in post-conflict Yezidi communities for his dissertation.

A man in traditional Middle Eastern clothing stands near a large, rectangular excavation pit in a sandy archaeological site. The background shows rough terrain and shadows. "Upenn Museum Archives" is labeled at the bottom.

Black and white photo of a mountainside village with numerous flat-roofed houses stacked along the slope, surrounded by rocky hills and sparse trees below. The image is labeled "Uppenn Museum Archives.

A man wearing a headscarf sits on the ground outdoors, surrounded by large, cracked clay jars and pottery pieces. Several square containers and stone structures are visible in the background.

A large group of people dressed in traditional Middle Eastern attire stand outdoors on a dirt slope, facing the camera. The photo is black and white and has a caption reading "Upenn Museum Archives.

Four people work on a clay or mud-brick building; two are on a ladder applying material to the wall, while two others stand and sit nearby. The scene is outdoors with another building in the background.

Two young people wearing traditional loose pants, belted tunics, and patterned headscarves stand side by side in front of a stone wall. Both are smiling at the camera. The image is black and white.

Webb discovered the photos inside the Penn Museum’s Archive and shared them with Yazidis during a trip to Iraq for his own research. The local residents responded gleefully to the images, sharing their own stories with Webb.

“The archives of the Penn Museum’s excavations in the 1930s hold immense value in documenting, preserving, and promoting cultural heritage, memory, and identity in Iraq,” Webb says per a Penn Museum press release.

“During the so-called Islamic State’s occupation, thousands of lives were lost. Most houses were burned and pillaged. More than 60 Yezidi religious sites were destroyed. Local archives of photographs and other historic documents vanished. It was an intentional campaign to destroy Yezidi cultural identity, heritage, language, religion, and memory, that amounted to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”

A long line of people, some on horseback and others on foot, travels across a barren, uneven landscape with hills and distant buildings in the background. The scene appears historical. "Upenn Museum Archives" is noted in the corner.

A group of people, some standing and others squatting, work on a rocky, open landscape under a clear sky. Tools and baskets are scattered around, suggesting excavation or fieldwork.

Black-and-white photo taken through a keyhole-shaped opening, showing a person standing outside near adobe structures, with more adobe buildings in the background. "Upenn Museum Archives" is written in the corner.

A group of people wearing traditional Middle Eastern attire excavate an archaeological site in a desert landscape, with mountains in the background. Some are digging, while others stand and observe.

Two people in traditional clothing stand among ancient stone ruins at an archaeological excavation site, with hills in the background. The image is black and white and labeled "Upenn Museum Archives.

After the photos proved to be popular with the Yazidis, the Penn Museum decided to digitize and restore the 300-strong collection. Staff members from the Penn Museum’s Photography Department produced and cleaned the high-resolution scans.

Ansam Basher, a Yazidi who now lives in England, tells AP she was “overwhelmed ” with emotion after she saw photos of her grandparents’ wedding day in the collection.

“No one would imagine that a person my age would lose their history because of the ISIS attack,” 43-year-old Basher tells AP. “My albums, my childhood photos, all videos, my two brothers’ wedding videos (and) photos, disappeared. And now to see that my grandfather and great-grandfather’s photos all of a sudden just come to life again, this is something I’m really happy about. Everybody is.”

Image credits: UPenn Museum Archives

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