Historical Photographs of Cambodia

Please click on the corresponding collections:

Then and Now: Historical Photographs of Cambodia.
Then and Now: Historical Photographs of Cambodia is a project linking the history of Cambodia from the past to the present through photographs and descriptions. It is a collaborative project between Arizona State University Libraries and Northern Illinois University Libraries aimed at digitizing old photographs taken by Mimi Palgen Maisonneuve in 1950s and 1960s and photographing the same locations to show contemporary Cambodian life in the year 2007.

The Palgen Photo Collection from the 1950s and 1960s offers a unique look at life in Cambodia from royal ceremonies to the rural life of commoners. This time period is significant because the images record life in Cambodia just prior to the beginning of hostilities that would lead to the Khmer Rouge period and the devastation of the entire Cambodian society. The contemporary photograph collection, taken in June and July 2007, contains pictures of village and rural scenes, everyday images of the urban lives of people in Phnom Penh, Kandal and Kampong Speu provinces, and historical monuments in Siem Reap province. The connection between these old and new photographs illustrates changes in village and urban life in Cambodia over these past few decades. Cambodia scholar and NIU Anthropologist, Judy Ledgerwood, along with Political Scientist, Kheang Un, coordinate this project for NIU with a graduate student in Anthropology at NIU, Pisith Phlong, as a research assistant. ASU Libraries' Southeast Asia Bibliographer Christopher Miller coordinates work from ASU with Pamela Nguyen Corey as a research assistant.

The May Ebihara Collection: Ethnographic Research in Rural Community, 1959-1995.
These photographs by the late cultural anthropologist Dr. May Ebihara depict life in Cambodia in the years 1959-60, and in the 1990s. The earlier materials represent a particularly valuable resource in that the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-79) purposefully destroyed many other collections of photographs depicting society and culture in Cambodia. The original slides and prints represented in digital form here are available in Northern Illinois University Libraries' Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia Collection.