At the 10th meeting of the UNESCO "Memory of the World" Committee for Asia and the Pacific in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, two nominations from the National Commission of Uzbekistan for UNESCO affairs were included in the "Memory of the World" registry. This was announced by the press service of the Uzbekistan Fund for Culture and Arts.
The nominations "Turkestan Album (1871-1872)" and "Images of the Khorezm Oasis of Khudaibergan Devanov (1879-1937)" were added to the "Memory of the World" registry.
The "Turkestan Album (1871-1872)" nomination contains rare photographs and color images of scientific and historical value, stored in the National Library of Uzbekistan. The album consists of historical, archaeological, ethnographic, and craft sections, showcasing the cultural and historical uniqueness of Khorezm and the historical and cultural transformations at the turn of the 19th to the early 20th centuries.
This collection was compiled in 1871-1872 and consists of 4 parts - archaeological, ethnographic, craft, and historical - in 10 volumes. The section of the album dedicated to archaeology and ethnography was prepared by orientalist A. L. Kun. Agronomist M. I. Brodovsky and botanist I. I. Krauze contributed materials on crafts, V. P. Ivanov on painting, and M. A. Rotmeister on military history. The photographs of the "Turkestan Album" were taken by N. N. Nekhoroshev.
The second nomination "Images of the Khorezm Oasis of Khudaibergan Devanov (1879-1937)" is a collection by Khudaibergan Devanov, an Uzbek innovative photographer, cinematographer, director, and cameraman from Khiva. Devanov's collection spans different periods of Khorezm's development, including the reign of Muhammad Rahimkhan II, Feruz (1864-1910), Asfandiyarkhan (1910-1918), the formation of the Khorezm People's Soviet Republic (KPSSR, 1920-1924), and the Uzbek SSR (1925-1937). These items serve as the only visual evidence of real events during the pivotal moments of the Turkestan region.
