Anatolia through the artifacts of everyday life
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 02, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Collector Orlando Carlo Calumeno is creating a museum to display his thousands of postcards, photographs and documents dating back to the 1600s and shedding light on the rich history of Anatolia. This Museum of the Anatolian Mosaic is opening soon in Istanbul
Orlando Carlo Calumeno has collected 8,000 handwritten postcards; 2,500 photographs; 2,400 books, some dating back to the 1600s; measuring devices; post-office scales; and more than 10,000 historical documents and other ephemera, including bills and diplomasÑall on Anatolian themes.
Though parts of Calumeno’s collection have been exhibited before, the Museum of the Anatolian Mosaic he is opening to house them will be the first of its kind in Turkey. Telling Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the museum would open soon in Istanbul, Calumeno said he wanted to display his collection permanently because people in Turkey do not know enough about the societies they live in together. "There are egoist collectors who want to keep everything for themselves [and are] not willing to share," he said. "Opening such a museum is extremely important for refreshing the social memory."
Though his mother is Armenian and his father is Italian, Calumeno’s family has been living in Turkey for 500 years. The family’s interest in collecting is as old as its roots here. As a student in elementary school, Calumeno started spending his pocket money on what would become his collection. The postcards that he randomly bought over the years, many bearing Armenian and Greek writing, are priceless today.
Reflections of history
Calumeno said the postcards and photographs had great historical importance and reflected Anatolia’s historical richness. Describing a scene in one of them, he said: "On a postcard from Sivas, dated 1909, we see two young girls playing tennis. In another postcard, again dated 1909, there is a high-society feast in Sivas showing people with luxury clothes and umbrellas. If there were no footnotes on these postcards, you would think that they must have been posted from Florence or Paris."
Calumeno said that interest in collecting postcards in Turkey started to grow at the beginning of the 2000s. "It is not possible [now] to gather the collection that I gathered when I was a student," he said. "These postcards are hard to find in the market and the ones left are being sold on the Internet for thousands of dollars."
Hundreds of his artifacts displayed in exhibitions
Some of Calumeno’s artifacts were displayed in the popular exhibitions "Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago," "Sireli Yeğpayrıs - My Dear Brother," "Yadigar-I Hürriyet" and "İzmir Postcards." The hundreds of handwritten postcards shedding light on Anatolian history drew attention not only in Turkey, but also in many other countries, including Armenia. Calumeno said that the process of reviewing his collection while preparing for these exhibitions "made me see that every part of the collection completes the other; none of them are independent."
Along with the exhibition last year, Calumeno released a catalogue for "Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago" that included a total of 750 postcards and was published in Turkish, English and German. He is now working on a new book that he will publish in the coming months, "Greeks in Turkey 100 Years Ago." An exhibition will open simultaneously with publication of the book.
Though parts of Calumeno’s collection have been exhibited before, the Museum of the Anatolian Mosaic he is opening to house them will be the first of its kind in Turkey. Telling Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that the museum would open soon in Istanbul, Calumeno said he wanted to display his collection permanently because people in Turkey do not know enough about the societies they live in together. "There are egoist collectors who want to keep everything for themselves [and are] not willing to share," he said. "Opening such a museum is extremely important for refreshing the social memory."
Though his mother is Armenian and his father is Italian, Calumeno’s family has been living in Turkey for 500 years. The family’s interest in collecting is as old as its roots here. As a student in elementary school, Calumeno started spending his pocket money on what would become his collection. The postcards that he randomly bought over the years, many bearing Armenian and Greek writing, are priceless today.
Reflections of history
Calumeno said the postcards and photographs had great historical importance and reflected Anatolia’s historical richness. Describing a scene in one of them, he said: "On a postcard from Sivas, dated 1909, we see two young girls playing tennis. In another postcard, again dated 1909, there is a high-society feast in Sivas showing people with luxury clothes and umbrellas. If there were no footnotes on these postcards, you would think that they must have been posted from Florence or Paris."
Calumeno said that interest in collecting postcards in Turkey started to grow at the beginning of the 2000s. "It is not possible [now] to gather the collection that I gathered when I was a student," he said. "These postcards are hard to find in the market and the ones left are being sold on the Internet for thousands of dollars."
Hundreds of his artifacts displayed in exhibitions
Some of Calumeno’s artifacts were displayed in the popular exhibitions "Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago," "Sireli Yeğpayrıs - My Dear Brother," "Yadigar-I Hürriyet" and "İzmir Postcards." The hundreds of handwritten postcards shedding light on Anatolian history drew attention not only in Turkey, but also in many other countries, including Armenia. Calumeno said that the process of reviewing his collection while preparing for these exhibitions "made me see that every part of the collection completes the other; none of them are independent."
Along with the exhibition last year, Calumeno released a catalogue for "Armenians in Turkey 100 Years Ago" that included a total of 750 postcards and was published in Turkish, English and German. He is now working on a new book that he will publish in the coming months, "Greeks in Turkey 100 Years Ago." An exhibition will open simultaneously with publication of the book.