Description

The John C. and Susan L. Huntington Photographic Archive of Buddhist and Related Arts contains nearly 300,000 original color slides and black and white and color photographs of art and architecture throughout Asia. Countries covered in the collection include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar (Burma). Works range from approximately 2500 B.C.E. to the present, and documentation includes contemporary religious activities in various parts of Asia.

The Archive documents the art and architecture of these countries in situ, as well as works of art found in most major Asian, European, and American museums. This broad, yet detailed, collection contains predominantly Buddhist material, but also includes Hindu, Jain, Islamic, and other works.

In addition to being the most comprehensive collection of its kind, The Huntington Archive includes the largest photographic archive of Nepali art and architecture in the world and represents the only formal collection that photographically records this country's artistic heritage.

Brief History

The Huntington Archive represents the efforts of over twenty-five years of field documentation photography by John and Susan Huntington, professors of Asian Art History at The Ohio State University. In 1986, the Huntingtons decided to formally expand their photographic collection beyond the countries central to their personal research to include other major countries in Asia that had not yet been documented. When the move from a personal resource materials archive to a Pan-Asian documentation project was made, the Huntingtons and the History of Art Department decided to create an institutional archive that could be used for scholarly research and classroom teaching.

Current Electronic Projects

• The Huntington Archive Web Site: (http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/)
  (established through funding from the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs (BETHA))
• A Guide for Photo Documentation in field research
• Maps of Asia
• A Photographic Guide to Lost and Stolen Images of Afghanistan and Nepal
• Art of Newar Buddhism in Nepal
• Image Study Sites for teaching purposes
• On-line Exhibitions: "Liturature in Line: Lianhuanhua: Picture Stories from China;" "China: 5,000 Years" - Modern Section of the exhibition at the Guggenheim and Bilbao; "Mirrors of the Heart-Mind: The Rezk Collection of Tibetan Art from the Permanent Collection of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art"; "Calligraphy by Doshu Kanayama"
• "Interactive Learning in the History of Art Classroom"
  Interactive CDs dealing with Asian art and culture are currently being designed through a three-year grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE). The goal of this project is to help provide a more active, learning environment for students in Asian art survey courses. The CD project relies almost exclusively on photographs from the Huntington collection and also contains original drawings, diagrams, and maps.
  

Creators of The Huntington Archive

John C. Huntington
Professor, History of Art
100 Hayes Hall, 108 N. Oval Mall Professor
Department of History of Art
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1318 U.S.A.
Phone: (614) 292-7481
Fax: (614) 292-4401
e-mail: huntington.2@osu.edu

Susan L. Huntington
Distinguished University Professor
Professor, History of Art
Dean of the Graduate School
Vice-Provost for Graduate Research
250 University Hall, 230 N. Oval Mall
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1318 U.S.A.
Phone: (614) 292-7481
Fax: (614) 292-3656
e-mail: huntington.1@osu.edu

 The Archive Staff and Contact Person

Janice M. Glowski, Associate Curator
The Huntington Archive, VRL
225 Hayes Hall, 108 North Oval Mall
Department of History of Art
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210-1318 U.S.A.
Phone: (614) 292-5374
Fax: (614) 292-4401
e-mail: glowski.1@osu.edu

URL http://asiandoc.lib.ohio-state.edu/v1n3/dbs/HuntingtonArchive.html

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