Middle East Centre Archive

Oman Archive Collections

The Middle East Centre Archive holds an outstanding collection of papers and photographs on Oman, especially for military history in the 1970s, due to the establishment of the Oman Archive in 1990s. The proposal to establish the Oman Archive was made in February 1992, by Mr Ian Skeet, a former Management Liaison Representative for the Petroleum Development (PDO) oil company. The primary motivation for the project was the realisation that much potential research material for the study of twentieth century Omani history was in the hands of individuals who had lived and worked in Oman. Action to form the Archive was therefore taken through the early 1990s to ensure that valuable resources were collected.

The Anglo-Omani Society provided a grant of £5000 to support the work of cataloguing the Oman material and Caroline Hughes was employed from June to September 2000 and catalogued 12 Oman Collections.

The Oman Collections continue to grow with accessions over the last three years including the papers and photographs of Edward Ashley, Charles Hepworth, Alex Lammond, Peter Sichel and on the 15th May 2007 the Archive received as a bequest, the Charles Butt Photograph Collection of 10,000 35mm colour slides.

In December 2008 the Anglo-Omani Society awarded a grant of £3,598.52 for the Charles Butt Project to digitise the excellent and extensive collection of 35mm colour slides of Oman in the Charles Butt Photographic Collection. For further details please see our Charles Butt Project webpage

The Charles Butt Oman Gallery is now available to view online. The Gallery consists of a selection of 300 images of Oman arranged in 12 themed photo galleries covering Agriculture, Boats and Coast, Buildings and Landscapes, Camel Races, Charles Butt, Flowers and Nature, Food, Military, Oil and Technology, Parades and Displays, People and Sultan Qaboss.

In September 2011 photographs from the Charles Butt Collection were exhibited alongside photographs by Wilfred Thesiger and Edward Grazda. For further details please see the Three Views of Oman webpage

The Middle East Centre Archive wishes to thank the Anglo-Omani Society for its support in helping to establish the Oman Archive and also for funding the Charles Butt project.

Oman Archive Catalogues

The following Guide and Handlists are PDF files.

[To view pdf files you should install a PDF viewer such as Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 3.0 or above)]

Sultan’s Armed Forces Association

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Oman Photo Galleries

Charles Butt Photo Gallery: Oman 1967-1978

300 images of Oman arranged in 12 themed photo galleries covering Agriculture, Boats and Coast, Buildings and Landscapes, Camel Races, Charles Butt, Flowers and Nature, Food, Military, Oil and Technology, Parades and Displays, People and Sultan Qaboss.

Charles Pirie Photo Gallery: Oman 1966

Images of Oman in 1966 covering Muscat, Nizwa and Sohar and including subjects such as a tribal delegation going to see the Sultan, Muscat and Nizwa forts, Sultan’s Armed Forces soldiers and outpost, market scenes and the Oman coastline.

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