Kroch Asia Rare Materials Archive
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Users should be aware that images from the Dowes Dekker Photograph collection contain sensitive depictions of death, burials, and cremation.
About this collection
The Kroch Asia Rare Materials Archive, also known as the KARMA Collection, holds a digitized selection of materials stewarded by the Asia Collection within Cornell’s Rare and Manuscript Collections. Materials in this collection include an album of historic photographs of Indonesia; photographs of Indonesian death rituals from the Douwes Dekker Photograph collection; Japanese comics depicting propaganda from the Russo-Japanese war; manuscript volumes from the personal diaries of Narushima Ryūhoku; stereograph photographs of South Asia published in the United States; photograph albums from Willard Straight’s travels in East Asia; Charles Wason’s photograph album depicting views of Amoy; and volumes of Shi Shi Hua Bao, a 20th century pictorial journal published in China.
In some cases, these materials were chosen for digitization to support the needs of instructors and researchers at Cornell University. In other cases, they were digitized in conjunction with exhibits hosted by Cornell University Libraries. This selection does not reflect the totality of subjects, time periods, and countries covered in the undigitized physical archives of Cornell’s Asia Collections.
Historical context
For more information on the context of materials in this collection at Cornell, see the following finding aids and library catalog pages listed in Collection Sources.
Using the collection
For assistance accessing the physical materials represented here, as well as additional holdings in the archives of the Cornell Asia Collections, please contact an Asia Collections staff member. The selection digitized here includes materials from numerous different collections, each with their own rights information. Discuss your research and teaching needs with a Cornell librarian or archivist to learn more about the copyright status of specific collections and items.
More information
- Collection steward
- Gregory Green, Curator, Echols Collection on Southeast Asia
- Metadata creation
- Cornell University Library
- Credits
- This collection overview was last reviewed by Gregory Green, collection steward, in 2025.
- Collection sources