Lecture and Book Signing:Souvenir, Art, or Anthropology?

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology presents

Lecture and Book Signing: 

Souvenir, Art, or Anthropology? 

Sep 24, 2015 at 6:00 pm

Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA

David Odo, Author, The Journey of “A Good Type”: From Artistry to Ethnography in Early Japanese Photographs

Director of Student Programs and Research Curator of University Collections Initiatives, Harvard Art Museums

When is a photograph a souvenir? A work of art? Anthropological data? How can tourist photographs, produced to appeal to foreign visitors of “exotic” lands, become scientific data? Based on his studies of the Peabody Museum’s collection of early photographs of Japan, David Odo, author of The Journey of “A Good Type”: From Artistry to Ethnography in Early Japanese Photographs (Peabody Museum Press, 2015), will discuss this complicated terrain. The collection—comprised of highly aesthetic photos colored by hand in the nineteenth century—is a fascinating example of how “art” and “science” can intersect in a museum. 

Free and open to the public. Complimentary event parking available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage. 

More Information Here