The William C. Brumfield Russian Architecture Collection is a collaboration between the University of Washington Libraries and William Brumfield to digitize and catalog his photographs of Russian architecture for preservation and study. Professor Brumfield's work documents the history of Russian architecture, primarily but not exclusively ecclesiastical, through color and black-and-white photographs made over the last thirty three years. With multiple images of both exteriors and interiors, they provide a unique opportunity for the study of historic buildings in Russia that are difficult to visit, and in many cases have deteriorated since they were photographed. In other cases, the collection provides a record of a building's restoration.

The pilot project presented here was funded by a grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and displays about 1,200 photographs from a collection of over 100,000. Funding is being sought to digitize and catalog the remainder of the collection.

Access to the Brumfield Collection is through an interface in which every featured building is located on a reference map showing the principal cities and administrative boundaries of today's Russian Federation. Clicking on the location of a building or architectural site generates a structured display of all the images of it in the collection.

For illustrated glossaries of the terms used in describing the exteriors and interiors of Russian churches, click on one of the top two images at the right.

To view the Brumfield Collection click on the window image at the right.

Images are © William C. Brumfield, and may not be reproduced without permission