Alexander A. Vasiliev in Mexico. Dumbarton Oaks Archives (AR.PH.Misc.214).
Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (Александр Александрович Васильев) (1867–1953) is often considered the foremost authority on Byzantine history and culture of the mid-twentieth century. His History of the Byzantine Empire (2 volumes, 1928) remains one of the few comprehensive accounts of the entirety of Byzantine history. Vasiliev was a Senior Scholar at Dumbarton Oaks between 1944 and 1948 and thereafter, until his death, a Scholar Emeritus. In 1946, he made a trip to Mexico where this photograph was taken, which he reproduced as a postcard (image above). The card is inscribed on the back: “Prof. A. Vasiliev with a donkey at Tasco, Mexico. Yard of the Hotel Rancho Telva. July 10, 1946.” The Dumbarton Oaks Archives holds the Alexander A. Vasiliev Papers with an on-line finding aid. The publication of this finding aid has brought this important collection to the attention of several scholars, including Ionut Alexandru Tudorie, who prepared a biography of Vasiliev, "Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev (1867-1953): The Patriarch of the Byzantine Studies," that was published in Byzantinoslavica 70, no. 1-2 (2012), 283–323. This postcard and a second postcard of Vasiliev in Mexico (image below) are retained in the Alexander A. Vasiliev Papers in the Dumbarton Oaks Archives.
