Sharing 7,000 Years of Egyptian Culture with the American Research Center in Egypt’s (ARCE) Open Access Conservation Archives

FAIN: PW-285113-22

ARCE (Alexandria, VA 22314-1555)
Yasmin El Shazly (Project Director: July 2021 to May 2022)
Yasmin El Shazly (Project Director: May 2022 to present)

A three-year implementation project to digitize and create online access to 26 archival collections of conservation records from sites in Egypt, ranging from prehistoric through Coptic, Islamic, and Jewish periods, and that are of interest to scholars, the public, and students and teachers. 

The American Research Center in Egypt is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting research on Egyptian history and culture, fostering knowledge about Egypt among the public, and strengthening American-Egyptian cultural ties. The proposed three-year project will digitize and publish online 26 collections of materials from conserved sites in Egypt, which encompass prehistoric, Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and Jewish sites and monuments. Egyptian monuments documented in the archives contain a wealth of information for scholars interested in the history of urban design; the study of Islamic inscription programs; the evolution of mosque architecture; and other topics. Long-term, this project will create significant benefits to research, education, and public programming in the humanities, as it will provide easily discoverable, free, open-source digital access to the ARCE online archives for scholars and the public across the globe with an interest in Egyptian history and culture.

Associated Products

ARCE Conservation Archives: Sharing 7,000 Years of Egyptian Culture with the American Research Center in Egypt's Open Access Conservation Archives (Web Resource)
Title: ARCE Conservation Archives: Sharing 7,000 Years of Egyptian Culture with the American Research Center in Egypt's Open Access Conservation Archives
Author: ARCE Archives Department
Abstract: The Conservation Archives spans 7,000 years of rich Egyptian history, ranging from Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, to Greco-Roman. Project work includes conservation, archaeological field training, structural preservation, wall paintings conservation, and historical and archaeological documentation. In total, the Conservation Archives houses 79 collections. Each collection contains photographic and textual material, which include 35mm and 120mm color and black & white slides, born-digital images, technical reports, maps, drawings, and various grant-related documentation. There are around 70,000 photographic slides, 200,000 images, 1,200 documents, 1,000 drawings, as well as a small selection of artifacts and multimedia content. In 2019, ARCE was awarded the Foundations Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for their Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program. The grant resulted in the creation of the archives website and the digitization and online publication of three collections. Under the implementation grant, ARCE has digitized eleven collections. Eight collections for this reporting period are being processed for publication. Once published, the website will have twenty-seven collections available for public use.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://archives.arce.org
Primary URL Description: ARCE's Conservation Archives website. The website is currently accessible on the staging site https://archive.alzad.ae until January 2025, when the website will be accessible on https://archives.arce.org, once the migration is completed.
Secondary URL: https://archive.alzad.ae
Secondary URL Description: This is the staging site during the website migration process. Once the migration is completed, website will be available on https://archives.arce.org (January 2025)

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