Penn Museum archive reconnects a fractured community and underscores the stakes of safeguarding heritage

Nearly a century after archaeologists working in northern Iraq befriended and photographed their Yazidi neighbors, almost 300 of those images have been brought to light at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Identified by doctoral researcher Marc Marin Webb and shared with the community alongside documentarian Nathaniel Brunt, the black-and-white photographs capture daily life, rituals, and landmarks that ISIS later tried to erase. In the wake of genocide and displacement, this visual record is helping a wounded minority reclaim family histories and cultural continuity.

A cache that outlasted ISIS

The United Nations has deemed ISIS crimes against the Yazidis a genocide, marked by mass killings, enslavement, and the destruction of shrines across Sinjar and beyond. The archive, sourced in part from digs at Tepe Gawra and Tell Billa and including work by noted archaeologist Ephraim Avigdor Speiser, offers rare documentation of places and traditions lost to war. Exhibitions in April, timed to the Yazidi New Year, were staged in towns the photos once depicted, and digital access is linking families across the diaspora with a past that extremists tried to obliterate.

Family history revived

For teacher Ansam Basher, now in England, the archive yielded a trove from her grandparents’ wedding in the early 1930s. Her family’s albums vanished when ISIS overran Mosul and nearby Bashiqa, yet the museum images show her grandmother stepping from a doorway, the dowry procession, and a rare car lent by the visiting archaeologists. Basher’s relatives in Germany helped confirm identities, turning scattered negatives into a living lineage and reminding a global audience that Yazidis are more than the suffering inflicted upon them.

Why Western stewardship matters

That these photographs survived in a Philadelphia archive underscores the strategic value of Western cultural stewardship and enduring academic partnerships in volatile regions. When lawful institutions protect records and share them responsibly, communities gain tools to rebuild identity and pursue justice. Supporting Iraqi partners in heritage preservation, documentation of ISIS crimes, and the stabilization of Nineveh and Sinjar advances both humanitarian aims and long-term regional security aligned with U.S. and allied interests.

Memory as a foundation for stability

Preserving culture is not a luxury but a bulwark against extremism. By investing in digitization, training local archivists, and co-curating exhibits with Yazidi leaders, Western institutions can help knit fractured communities back together. The Penn Museum project shows how principled collaboration and patient, apolitical cultural work can fortify allies, honor victims, and lay firmer ground for a more stable future.