Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran: A Digital Archive and Website

FAIN: PW-51027-12

President and Fellows of Harvard College (Cambridge, MA 02138-3800)
Afsaneh Najmabadi (Project Director: July 2011 to July 2014)

The development of a comprehensive digital archive and Web site that will preserve and render accessible primary sources related to the social and cultural history of women during the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925) in Iran. The sources include unpublished poetry, essays, travelogues, private letters, photographs, portrait paintings, calligraphies, marriage contracts, and legal documents.

Harvard University seeks renewed funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to continue its development of the Women's World in Qajar Iran project, a comprehensive digital archive and website that preserves, links and renders accessible primary source materials related to the social and cultural history of women' worlds during the reign of the Qajar dynasty, 1796 to 1925 in Iran. The dynasty is perhaps most notable for a series of intense interactions with Europe, many of which introduced cultural and political changes that still resonate in the Iran of today. The WWQI project addresses a significant gap in the scholarship related to this important time in the history of Iran by making available writings and other personal documents created by, and reflecting the lives of, women during the Qajar era. Since the project began in 2009 approximately 20,000 digital facsimiles have been created.

Associated Products

Making (Up) an Archive (Article)
Title: Making (Up) an Archive
Author: Najmabadi, Afsaneh
Abstract: In a paper given at the 2013 conference of the Digital Islamic Humanities Project, Harvard professor Afsaneh Najmabadi outlines the disciplinary and theoretical considerations of establishing a multi-genre digital archive to document a historically underrepresented group in established archives: women of Iran’s Qajar dynasty (1796-1925). The Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is a digital repository that, as of April 2013, provides access to 33,000 images, 43 private family collections, and ten institutional collections. Professor Najmabadi, Principal Investigator on this project, emphasizes the scholastic advantages of “pull[ing] together disparate archival threads” by gathering personal and family objects, photographs, and oral histories on a digital platform. “[This] has produced a fabric that is not simply the sum total of the separate threads. The resulting fabric generates connections that facilitate doing richer histories,” states Najmabadi.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/dash/2013/12/making-archive
Primary URL Description: Harvard DASH

Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran Digital Archive and Website: What Could Writing History Look Like in a Digital Age? (Article)
Title: Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran Digital Archive and Website: What Could Writing History Look Like in a Digital Age?
Author: Najmabadi, Afsaneh
Abstract: This piece focuses on the significance of the Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran project and its implications for and use by historians.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/november-2013/material-culture-in-the-digital-frame/womens-worlds-in-qajar-iran-digital-archive-and-website
Primary URL Description: Perspectives on History (AHA) link
Format: Magazine

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