Artifacts and Ephemera Collection
Stanley Abramovitch album (detail). One of several albums containing photos of Jewish communities in North Africa and Iran. Abramovitch was JDC Country Director in Iran from 1949 to 1952.
North Africa and Iran, c.1950s, photographs on paper and enamel.
The JDC Archives Artifacts and Ephemera Collection contains works ranging from posters and illuminated records to precious artwork and gifts from Jewish communities around the world. These unique treasures, more than 1,000 of which have been cataloged, offer a rich historical overview of JDC’s relief activities over the past century in 90 countries.
Given the visual and dynamic nature of these objects, the collection helps to enrich and complement the JDC Archives’ photograph and text holdings. Bureaucratic correspondence and reports come alive when partnered with this wide range of mixed-media objects that reflect the social fabric of global communities and the humanitarian response to monumental historical events.
The collection’s works span from 1917 to the present and include:
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- Works of art, from framed paintings and lithographs to prints and handicrafts
- Religious and ceremonial objects
- Plaques and medals
- Albums and scrapbooks
- Newspaper clippings
- Correspondence and personal documents
- Posters and advertisements
- Architectural and cartographic materials
- Institutional ephemera ranging from promotional items to publications
- Staff mementos
- Textiles
Exhibit
JDC Artifacts Through the Years
Browse our online exhibit showcasing artifacts from the collection.
News
A Gift to Remember: JDC Receives Artifacts from those Helped by Organization
If a picture is worth a thousand words, as the expression goes, how many words is an object worth?
Donate
Help Us Expand Our Collection
JDC continues to expand its Artifacts and Ephemera Collection and is seeking items whose history is intertwined with that of the JDC, in order to help narrate the organization’s story of rescue, relief, and renewal around the globe.
