New exhibit seeks to start filling some of Anatolian history's 'Empty Fields'
More than a century ago, botanist John Manissadjian roamed the countryside of what is now northern Turkey, collecting — and sometimes identifying for the first time — thousands of species of flowers and other plants, as well as butterflies and moths. These finds formed the core of the natural science museum he established at Anatolia College, a school for Greek and Armenian students in the Ottoman Empire. “Manissadjian’s labour of love was such a sophisticated collection, started in the last decade of the 19th century,” says Vasıf Kortun, director of research and programmes at Istanbul-based cultural institution SALT. Sadly, within just a few decades, the museum and its collection were doomed to disappear, dispersed, along with Anatolia College’s students and professors, following the mass expulsion of Armenians from Ottoman lands in 1915. Now, curator Marianna Hovhannisyan is working with SALT to bring some of Manissadjian’s scholarship back into focus in a new exhibition.