Misplaced Pages

#744255

37-463: The bridge served a primary function as a building and a place for public meetings in the past. It has been described as the city's finest bridge. Persian art historians and revivalists, Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman are interred in a mausoleum nearby. The Khaju Bridge was built around 1650, under the reign of Abbas II , the seventh Safavid king ( shah ) of Iran, on the foundations of an older bridge. The existing inscriptions suggest that

74-667: A champion of Russia at a time when it was not popular to do so. He was a trustee of the American-Russian Institute and a vice-president of the National Council for American-Soviet Friendship. He published a biography of the Russian diplomat Maxim Litvinov in 1943. After Life magazine listed Pope in April 1949 among people they considered to be Communist sympathizers, some patrons withdrew their support of

111-537: A field that was not yet being taught in American universities. He was divorced from his first wife (who later became the author Bertha Damon ). In 1920, Pope married his former student Phyllis Ackerman , who had completed a doctorate in philosophy at Berkeley in 1917 and shared his interest in textile arts. They had collaborated on an exhibition of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst collection in 1916 at

148-548: A house on 250 acres of land near Alton, New Hampshire and spent much of each year there, where she created extensive gardens. Soon she was president of her local garden club and then president of the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs. After her book Grandma Called It Carnal became a best-seller, she was a popular guest lecturer to women's clubs and other groups. She generally returned to Berkeley for part of each year, and spent even more time there after

185-510: A non-Muslim, and having to process all his negatives before leaving the country. He wrote about these problems in an article for Photography (London) , vol. 5, no. 49 (September 1936) graphically entitled, “Killed for Photographing a Fountain! Camera as a Record of World-Famous Persian Architecture”. Exhibitions of his Persian photographs were mounted at art galleries and museums in cities such as New York, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, London, Copenhagen, Chicago, San Francisco, Jerusalem and Leningrad during

222-465: A real talent for gathering people around her, and that she "was so great a wit that we were all delighted periodically into really uncontrolled laughter.” Well-known writers who were part of her circle include Stella Benson , Witter Bynner , Oscar Lewis, Winfield Townley Scott , and Marie de Laveaga Welch. She was also active in the Sierra Club and wrote accounts of some of its camping trips for

259-998: A special mausoleum that was erected on the order of the Shah. The Asia Institute became a part of Pahlavi University and gradually declined, especially after the Islamic revolution in 1979. Eventually, the Bulletin of the Asia Institute was revived in Michigan in 1987. Pope began taking photographs for his Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present in 1929 with a camera he had purchased in Cairo. An amateur cameraman who became, as Noël Siver describes him, 'a top-notch photographer', Pope overcame difficulties with weather conditions, opposition to his visiting mosques as

296-695: The Book Club of California . Bertha held a part-time job as the first paid secretary of the Book Club during 1920, and she edited and wrote an introduction to The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, published by the club in 1922. After a trip to Europe in 1922, she opened the Old World Shop in Berkeley, selling European antiques and Oriental rugs until 1925. She owned a series of homes in the East Bay in

333-526: The Metropolitan Museum of Art , Art Institute of Chicago , and Philadelphia Museum of Art . He also advised wealthy individual collectors including Calouste Gulbenkian , William Randolph Hearst , George Hewitt Myers , and John D. Rockefeller Jr. In 1923, Pope was appointed director of the not-yet-opened California Palace of the Legion of Honor , Ackerman was named assistant director, and

370-485: The Palace of Fine Arts , San Francisco, and they continued to be partners in many projects for the rest of their lives, each crediting the other with greater expertise. By the early 1920s, Pope and Ackerman had developed a great deal of expertise as historians of Persian and related art, and they became advisors to major collectors and museums on the acquisition of Islamic art and artefacts. Pope's museum clients included

407-647: The Sierra Club Bulletin . Bertha Louise Clark was born in a small town, Chester, Connecticut , in 1881. After her mother died in 1892 she and her sister lived with their grandmother. She attended high school at Northfield Seminary . After graduating from Pembroke College in Brown University in 1905 and teaching school in Providence, Rhode Island briefly, she married Arthur Upham Pope in 1909, who had graduated from Brown in 1904 and

SECTION 10

#1732783936745

444-479: The 1920s. As she told it in her author biographies, "Bertha Damon has earned her living in various ways, the most interesting to her being the successful building and remodeling of houses, though she had no formal training as an architect." In 1925 she had a Mediterranean-style house built on Eagle Hill in Kensington, California , which she sold to J. Robert Oppenheimer and his wife in the summer of 1941, while he

481-649: The 1930s to great acclaim. His photographic legacy lives on, photographs taken in Persia and attributed to Pope, are held by the Conway Library whose archive, of primarily architectural images, is in the process of being digitised under the wider Courtauld Connects project. In 2010 the Art Institute of Chicago , one of the museums Pope advised, presented an exhibition, "Arthur Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art", curated by Yuka Kadoi . In conjunction with

518-661: The Asia Institute to Shiraz, Iran , where it would be affiliated with Pahlavi University and housed in the Narenjestan . They accepted the offer and in 1966 moved to Iran, where they would spend the rest of their lives. Pope suffered a heart attack and died in 1969. Ackerman remained in Shiraz until her death in 1977. Their remains lie in a mausoleum on the bank of the Zayandeh River in Isfahan close to Khaju Bridge ,

555-445: The Asia Institute. Pope retired as chancellor of the Asia Institute in 1952 at age 71. The institute went into decline and no longer operated as the thriving educational institution it had been. Pope remained active as a scholar, publishing more than 20 articles and papers, as well as a book on Persian architecture, between 1952 and his death in 1969. In 1964, during a state visit to Iran, Pope and Ackerman were formally invited to move

592-497: The Boston-area. Pope graduated from Worcester Academy in 1899. He attended Brown University , and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1904 and a M.A. degree in 1906. He taught at Brown University for two years during his master's degree studies. In 1909, he married Bertha Louise Clark. He pursued further graduate-level teaching work at Cornell University and Harvard University and again taught at Brown until 1911, when he

629-516: The Civic Center of San Francisco in the mid-1920s. In 1924 Pope and Ackerman bought the house in San Mateo, California they called "Scholars' Cottage" from its architect and first occupant, Ernest Coxhead . They sold it in 1943 and it later became a state and national historic landmark. Pope made his first trip to Iran in the spring of 1925. He gave a speech urging Iranians to appreciate

666-559: The Khajoo Bridge was to connect the two districts of Khajoo and the Hassanabad Gate with Takht-e Folad and Shiraz Road. Tourists who came to Isfahan at different times praised the beauty of the Khajoo Bridge and considered it one of the eternal masterpieces of Iranian and Islamic architecture. The bridge has 23 arches and is 133 meters long and 12 meters wide. Iranian architects have raised concerns about damage inflicted on

703-817: The Persian pavilion and organized an exhibition of Persian art for the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Persia Pavilion, based on the Masjed-e Shah (King’s Mosque) in Isfahan, won a gold medal. That year he also organized the first international congress on Persian art; he would lead four more of these congresses over the next 40 years. By 1927, he and Phyllis returned to San Francisco and pursued additional design projects, including an ornate Persian-palace-style interior for

740-801: The United States entered World War I in 1917, Pope took a job in the Personnel Division of the War Department's General Staff in Washington, D.C. He began lecturing and writing on military morale and on the assessment for promotion of officers. After the war he was among the organizers of the League of Oppressed Peoples and made speaking tours in favor of the Irish Free State. He also intensified his study of Islamic art,

777-654: The Zayandeh River in Isfahan. This request was approved by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in September 2007. However, Frye's death coincided with efforts to improve Iran-United States relations , and the planned burial became highly controversial. During the associated protests by Islamic hardliners in April 2014, the Pope-Ackerman tomb was vandalized with extensive painted words. After Frye's family waited more than two months for approval to proceed with

SECTION 20

#1732783936745

814-439: The architecture of their past and to use it as inspiration for modern buildings. Reza Shah Pahlavi , then prime minister and later Shah of Iran, heard the speech, met Pope, and began taking a personal interest in Persian architectural restoration and revival. He authorized Pope to enter key mosques to study and photograph their architecture and became a lifelong supporter of Pope's pursuits in the field. In 1926, Pope helped design

851-399: The auspices of the institute, and he led numerous trips to Iran from 1929 to 1939 to photograph art and architecture and participate in archaeological excavations. The six-volume Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present was published by Oxford Press in 1938-39, and Pope and his colleagues arranged for several exhibitions of Persian art in the U.S. and Europe to coincide with

888-473: The bridge during recent "improvement program" renovations, citing, among other problems, the destruction of the original stepped base of the bridge, the alterations made to the riverbed, and the removal of the Safavid inscribed stone blocks from the bridge. Arthur Upham Pope Arthur Upham Pope (February 7, 1881 – September 3, 1969) was an American scholar, art historian, and architecture historian. He

925-447: The bridge was repaired in 1873. There is a pavilion located in the center of the structure, inside which Abbas II would have once sat, admiring the view. Today, remnants of a stone seat is all that is left of the king's chair. In words of Arthur Pope and Jean Chardin , Khaju is "the culminating monument of Persian bridge architecture and one of the most interesting bridges extant ... where the whole has rhythm and dignity and combines in

962-580: The burial, they decided to have his body cremated in Boston. Bertha Damon Bertha Clark Pope Damon (1881–1975) was an American humorist , author, lecturer, and editor. She wrote the best-selling humorous memoir Grandma Called It Carnal . The composer Ernst Bacon dedicated two songs to Bertha Damon. Benjamin Lehman, English professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said she “had

999-599: The exhibition the museum held a symposium in which international scholars of Persian art discussed the life, achievements and influence of Arthur Upham Pope. According to Noël Siver in the Encyclopaedia Iranica , Arthur Upham Pope was a charismatic yet controversial figure. While admired by most of his contemporaries for his aesthetic sensibilities, his energy, his enthusiasm, and for the many contributions and activities described above, more recent opinion has been critical of Pope’s financial dealings including

1036-466: The happiest consistency, utility, beauty, and recreation." The poets of Isfahan wrote beautiful poems on the Khajoo bridge and in these poems they praised its beauties. Among these poems is the long poem by Saeb Tabrizi which describes one of the days of celebration and illumination next to this bridge. According to historians and scholars who have studied the Safavid dynasty, Shah Abbas II's goal in building

1073-910: The penthouse of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, and the interior of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park , where they made extensive use of Middle Eastern kilims as well as Native American artefacts. In 1928, Pope founded the American Institute for Persian Art and Archaeology, which was incorporated in New York City in 1930 and later became the Asia Institute . He enlisted other scholars to teach and conduct research under

1110-771: The publication. Pope was a pivotal figure in the organisation of the highly successful International Exhibition of Persian Art that opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in January 1931; in particular he was instrumental in obtaining items on loan from many sources, including the Persian Crown Jewels. During the Second World War Pope again worked for the U.S. government, drawing upon his expertise in languages and cultures. He also became

1147-545: The sale of works of art to museums and important collectors, activities which he felt, having exhausted his personal means, were necessary in order to sponsor the field trips, underwrite the Survey of Persian Art, keep the underfunded Institute afloat, etc. Richard Frye , who was a student of Arthur Pope and an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asia studies, died on March 28, 2014, at the age of 94. In his will, Professor Frye expressed his wish to be buried, like Pope, next to

Khaju Bridge - Misplaced Pages Continue

1184-479: The two travelled in Europe to develop a collection for the new museum. Before long, however, their relationship with Alma Spreckels , patron of the museum, deteriorated and they resigned. Pope remained interested in museum planning, publishing an article on " Museum fatigue " in 1924 and writing and lecturing about a new museum plan for San Francisco. He was a consultant on planning for an art museum and opera house in

1221-560: The university and a divorce from Bertha around 1920. Bertha continued to live in the Tudor-style house they had purchased after its use at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition . She sometimes had long-term guests and boarders, including Peter Case and Stella Benson , in that house, which she named "High Acres." She became a close friend of Albert M. Bender , who was treasurer and publications chair of

1258-612: Was an expert on historical Persian art , and he was the editor of the Survey of Persian Art (1939). Pope was also a university professor of philosophy and aesthetics, an archaeologist, photographer, museum director, interior designer, and the co-founder of an international scholarly organization. Born in Phenix in West Warwick , Rhode Island on February 7, 1881. His family was descended from English Puritans that had settled in

1295-1020: Was hired by the philosophy department at the University of California, Berkeley . During World War I, while teaching at U.C. Berkeley, he was active in the peace movement as California organizing secretary for the American Neutral Conference Committee. He left Berkeley in December 1917 under a cloud caused by his relationship with student Phyllis Ackerman. He taught briefly at Amherst College , where his friend and former professor Alexander Meiklejohn had become president. But he soon gave up teaching philosophy and pursued his passion for Persian art, which had begun with an early interest in Oriental rugs . He had organized his first museum exhibition of Middle Eastern carpets while still an undergraduate at Brown University. After

1332-423: Was soon hired to teach philosophy there. Pope did graduate work at Brown, Cornell and Harvard. In 1910 the couple moved to Berkeley, California; where he taught at the University of California, Berkeley. During the 1915–16 school year Bertha taught English at Oakland Technical High School . Discovery of Arthur Pope's affair with student Phyllis Ackerman (who later became his second wife) led to his resignation from

1369-674: Was working on the Manhattan Project . Another home she lived in and worked on was on the waterfront in Point Richmond, California . In 1926 she wrote an account of "The High Trip of 1925" in the Sierra Club Bulletin. In 1927 she traveled by automobile to Santa Fe and Taos , New Mexico, with Albert Bender and Ansel Adams . In 1928, she married Lindsay Todd Damon (1871–1940), who was an English professor at Brown University from 1901 to 1936. They bought

#744255