Abstract
In the mid-1920s, two American art historians were introduced to the Iranian cultural landscape; they were to remain there even after their death. Phyllis Ackerman (1893-1977) and her husband Arthur Upham Pope (18811969) devoted most of their professional lives to the research and publication of Iranian art, architecture and archaeology. They made two lasting contributions; one was their survey of Persian art, originally published in 1938-39 in six volumes . The twelve-volume collection, titled Survey of Persian Art: From Prehistoric Time to the Present (hereafter Survey) was reprinted in 1964 and remains the single most substantial collection on Iran's material culture to this day. The second major contribution was Ackerman- -Pope's role in mounting several international congresses and exhibitions on the artistic heritage of Iran. These events were affiliated with the American Institute of Persian Art and Archeology in New York, in turn, founded by their shared efforts in 1928. Enlarged and renamed as the Asia Institute, it was relocated to Shiraz in 1966. Soon after their deaths, the Society for National Heritage (hereafter SNH), under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Art of Iran, built their joint mausoleum in the historically and architecturally rich city of central Iran, Isfaha. ' A mirror to their philosophy, the tomb structure was the SNH's last major project erected before the fall of the Pahlavi royal dynasty in the 1979 Revolution.