Ernst Cohn-Wiener
Ernst Cohn-Wiener (1882–1941) was a German historian of Islamic art. Born in the city of
Tilsit, he studied the history of art, archaeology, and philosophy in
Berlin and
Heidelberg from 1902 to 1906. He received his PhD from Heidelberg in 1907. In the 1920s his interest turned to Islamic art history and he resolved to explore the monuments of
Central Asia, a little-known field at the time. After expeditions in 1924 and 1925, he published ''Turan: Islamische Baukunst in Mittelasien''. In 1933 Cohn-Wiener lost his position due to the anti-Semitic policies of the Nazis and he emigrated with his wife to India where he was employed by the
Maharaja of Baroda. In 1939 emigrated to the USA where he died in 1941.
Cohn-Wiener's photographic archive was acquired by the
British Museum in 1998 from the
School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London.
The archive consists of 324 film negatives and 567 glass negatives.
Provided by Wikipedia