How have colonial and imperial regimes imagined and represented the Persian Gulf? 

This exhibit explores how the British, Ottoman and American empires documented the human and non-human geography, resources, and landscapes of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It features historical maps and artifacts from the collections of the Branner Earth Sciences Library and the David Rumsey Map Center alongside cartographic visualizations created by the OpenGulf research collective. 

Featured materials include maps derived from a dataset collected from the British Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, Arabia, and Oman created using QGIS, including the map of mentions of date palms displayed here.  By placing these historical materials and contemporary analyses in conversation, we uncover a genealogy of geographical thinking alongside the power structures embedded in imperial and colonial record-keeping.  This exhibit aims to illustrate and critically engage the breadth, depth, and nature of colonial and imperial knowledge production regarding the Persian Gulf and Arabian Peninsula, highlighting its varied expressions in texts, maps, and charts.

This exhibition is also available to view digitally. 

Sponsored by: Dept. of History, CESTA & Stanford Libraries

Books and a selection of maps are displayed on the library's main floor. Additional maps are displayed on the library mezzanine exhibit wall (access from within the library). The exhibit is available for viewing during regular library open hours. 

Check out past exhibits featured in the Branner Library Newsletter.  

A current Stanford ID is needed to enter the library, visitors must present a government issued ID card to sign-in at the front desk.