FAQ

About Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran

About conducting research on the WWQI website

About the technical aspects of the WWQI website

About Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran

What is the Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran (WWQI) project?

WWQI is a digital archive and website of materials related to the lives of women during the Qajar era, including writings, photographs, financial and legal documents, art work, and objects of daily use. The project’s team of researchers identifies relevant materials from both private collections and institutions around the world. The project then digitizes the materials according to the specifications laid out by Harvard University, and makes them publicly available in searchable form on the WWQI website.

How do you define "Qajar era?"

We define Qajar era in a broad sense, inclusive of the period immediately preceding and following the dynastic period.

Where do you keep the actual objects and can I view them?

Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is a virtual archive. It does not physically hold any of the objects displayed in the archive. Please consult the repository records for further information on the physical location of objects.

Can you provide me with contact information for the owners of these objects?

Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is not authorized to provide additional information not included on the website or act as an intermediary between owners and website users.

I own some materials that I would like to include in your archive. What do I do?

Email us at wwqi@fas.harvard.edu and one of our researchers will promptly contact you to make appropriate arrangements.

Can I still support the project even if I don’t have any materials relevant to the archive?

WWQI depends on the financial generosity of private donors to raise funds to support the on-going acquisition, digitization and preservation of archival materials. Additional funding is also needed to support the translation of selected texts into English to help make the archive accessible to a wider audience. If you or anyone you know would like to donate, please contact us at wwqi@fas.harvard.edu

About conducting research on the WWQI website

What are the different ways I can browse and search for materials?

Click "Browse" to go to the main archive page. From here you can browse and search in a number of ways:

  • Use the left navigation bar to browse by genre, collections, people, places, and periods. Refine your results by selecting additional categories revealed by your selection(s) or remove categories to return to earlier results. Click "Reset" to start again.
  • Enter a keyword in the search bar to find items that match your search terms. Resulting matches can be further refined through the left navigation bar. Use "Advanced Search" to select specific parameters and/or year ranges.
  • Use the indices to browse through our list of people, genres, places and subjects.

Click on "Collections" to browse information on groups of items from featured family holdings and participating repositories. Collection records provide more expansive catalog information on items found in the archive as well as links to download findings aid, if available. Individual collection records can also be accessed by clicking the "arrow" icon next to collection names in the left navigation bar.

What is "My Selections"?

"My Selections" is a unique tool that allows you to gather items from the archive for later review and email multiple citation records. Collect items by clicking on "Add to My Selections" throughout the site. Please note: My Selections records are not saved across sessions.

Do I get the same results if I search in English or Persian?

Yes. The Persian and English sides of the website are mirror reflections of each other.  For example, you get the same result search for "food" as a keyword in the English archival pages as you would for «غذا» in Persian.

What transliteration system is used for Persian names and places?

The spelling of people and places often reflect authority records and may therefore be presented in unusual or unfamiliar form. The transliteration convention adopted on the website is based on a simplified form of the ALA-LC Romanization Tables for Persian used in the majority of online library databases, including the Library of Congress. If a name or place search produces no results, try alternate spellings or use a wildcard. For more detailed information on conducting searches, consult Search Tips on the Advanced Search page.

How do I properly cite an item?

Citations should reference Women’s World in Qajar Iran, the URL of the digital object, and, if applicable, the repository that holds the original, along with any descriptive information displayed with the item, such as:

  • name of author/creator
  • item/collection/record group title
  • folder title, if applicable
  • item description
  • call number, if applicable

How do I download or print images?

Use the left navigation bar on an item view page to select from these options:

  • Download PDF: for a print friendly view
  • Download Images: for a high quality zip file of JPEG images
  • Transcriptions/Translations (when available): use the controls in your browser to save or print these item views.

About the technical aspects of the WWQI website

What software do I need to view the website?

A modern browser is recommended such as Firefox, Safari, Chrome and the latest versions of Internet Explorer. The Adobe Flash plugin is also required to view the high resolution images and is available at www.adobe.com.

What technology is behind the website?

The archive is managed through the Ruby on Rails application framework and a MySQL relational database.