The Cities/Buildings Archive, created by Prof. Meredith Clausen at the University of Washington, is a major web-based resource for photographs. While the focus is on the buildings and city spaces, in a way that would be of particular interest to students of architecture, there are photographs of markets, shops, craftsmen, etc. Since the archive is still work in progress and depends in the first instance on donations of images, its coverage is wildly uneven--some places are very well represented; others of equal or greater significance may be absent. To date there are some 6000 images in the archive. The quality of the photographs in general is very good, although some of the photoshopping is being improved as time permits. Depending on which operating system you have and the settings on your screen display, pictures may show a bit light or a bit dark. The archive currently contains only the photos (most in jpg images with maximum dimension 550 pixels) and bare-bones identification. The photos all bear the copyright of the photographers; the web site tells how to obtain permission to reproduce them. Also, for DW, please see separate page here on copyright issues.
There are two versions of this archive:
The original version is searchable by country and then, using your bowser word search function, by keyword. Under each country, the material is organized by location, generally the name of the city. The spellings for locations have not been fully standardized and may differ from those used in the new version of the archive. The original archive is now closed--that is, all new material and updates are being added only to the new version.
The new version of the archive is being presented through the University of Washington Library's "Content" software, which allows flexible searching according to various parameters and provides a list of the standardized place names and building names used in the library cataloguing system. Where there are multiple images of a single building or location, thumbnailed pictures allow easy comparison and selection. The images from the original archive have been loaded into the new version, and the collection is growing rapidly through the addition of new material. Content does allow for some descriptive prose on the objects in the pictures, although so far little such explanation has been added.
Dan Waugh has provided some 2000 photos for the Cities/Buildings Archive, the last of which are now being processed. While not all for any of the locations listed below are his, a substantial portion is. In certain cases (notably Russia and Central Asia), the scope of the collection far exceeds that in any other web-based archive that is now available. Some of the photos in the archive are also to be found on the web pages connected with "Waugh's Central Asia." DW's photos in the archive may be found for the following countries/locations:
Armenia: small selection, still in processing stage.
China: Beijing, esp. Forbidden City; Xi'an; Lanzhou; Binglingsi (Buddhist Caves); Jiayuguan; Dunhuang and its region; Kashgar (in "Content" listed as Kashi); some of mountain villages in Kongur/Mustagh Ata region; Tashkurgan.
The Czech Republic: Prague.
Georgia (Caucasus): small selection, may still be in processing stage.
Germany: a few for Berlin, in process.
Kyrgyzstan: still being processed; Bishkek, Osh, Burana, herder settlements in mountains.
Mongolia: mainly Ulan Baator
The Netherlands: primarily Amsterdam.
Pakistan: some starting in Rawalpindi and going north along Karakoram Highway; Taxila.
Poland: Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw.
Russia: a very large collection for various cities, emphasizing medieval Russian architecture; also very good selection of Imperial palaces in vicinity of St. Petersburg and views of that city.
Tajikistan: a few for Pendzhikent.
Turkey: Istanbul, Bursa, Kayseri, Selcuk and Efes (Ephesus).
Uzbekistan: extensive sets for Samarkand, Khiva; some for Tashkent, Bukhara, Shahr-i Sabs.
Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Macedonia: various locations, including a lot of photographs taken in Kosovo in 1984.
Two photographs of the tomb of Yusuf Hass Hajib in Kashgar, Xinjiang; published in Kemal Silay, ed., An Anthology of Turkish Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), p. 16.
Photographs of Ulugh Beg Observatory in Samarkand, to appear in UNESCO volume on Science and Technology in Islam, in late 2000.
25-30 Photographs of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, in Eileen K. Gunn, "Phoenix Cities of Central Asia: Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva," published on the website of gorp.com.