Collections of History: The Search for Old Photographs from British Ceylon, 1850-1915

Benita Stambler, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, USA, benita.stambler@ringling.org

It began as just a typical research task, but has turned into a worldwide search for old photographs of Sri Lanka.  The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, where I work, has been promised a gift of more than 700 old photographs of Asia with virtually no documentation.  Almost half of these photos were taken in Ceylon in the late 19^th century.  I’ve been trying to identify these 300+ photos by matching them to photos in collections around the world.  That search has turned into another project, for the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, to document collections of photographs of Ceylon taken between 1850 and 1915.  I have so far identified collections mostly in the U.S. and England (close to forty at the moment), and will be in Sri Lanka beginning August 27, 2012 for a few weeks to try to add to my list.  If you know of any collections of photographs, please let me know, at the e-mail address above.