The South Asia photographic archive at the University of Pennsylvania principally duplicates the holdings of the American Institute of Indian Studies' Center for Art and Archaeology in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. Set up at the University in 1979, this archive is a national facility, open to all who are interested in the study of Indian art.
Holdings currently consist of ca.
4,000 color slides which duplicate those held in Gurgaon. By agreement with the AIIS and the Smithsonian Foreign Currencies Program, which funds the Gurgaon Center, photographs added to the Gurgaon archive are added also the archive in Philadelphia, keeping it a current tool for research. The archive also has documentation in the areas of Baroque architecture in India and the architecture and sculpture from other parts of South Asia. Web sites for the Center for Art and Archeology in Gurgaon and other AIIS Offices. The archive forms part of The W. Norman Brown South Asia Reference Room on the fifth floor of the University's Van Pelt Library, 34th and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19104.