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 CONCEPT AND SCRIPT

  
To a researcher who has extensively worked on the Ottoman Bank archives since 1989, setting up a museum depicting the history of the bank was both an easy task and a challenge. It had to be easy, since knew well what I would find in these archives I had myself classified. Moreover, the exhibition I had prepared in 1997, under the title of Glimpses from the Past. An Exhibition of the Ottoman Bank Archives had constituted a preliminary work in this direction. Several other exhibitions, books, and articles had further enhanced my knowledge on this material, while allowing me to approach it from different perspectives. Yet, despite these undeniable advantages, some aspects of the project were quite daunting. How was one to pick documents from such a rich source? Which documents would have to be sacrificed? How was one supposed to convey the message that the handpicked documents in the exhibition were only single examples drawn from a multitude of similar records? Which events, which trends, which concepts of this eighty-year narrative should be emphasized? How was one to balance the institutional history of the bank against the social, political, and economic context in which it operated? Was there any way one could avoid adopting too academic and didactic a tone in presenting to a wide audience what was, after all, a rather technical subject? What was the best way of presenting the contents of documents, most of which were written in French and in Ottoman? How could a balance be reached between textual and illustrative material?

Obviously, there were no perfect answers to all of these questions. Any attempt at solving one problem was bound to create others. Nevertheless, in the hope of preserving as much as possible the delicate balance between the historical narrative, the nature of the documents, and the expectations of visitors, I have tried to put into application the following principles:

- The overall script should combine a chronological flow, necessary from the perspective of the institution's history, with a thematic one, more appropriate for a description of the context surrounding it. Thus, some panels would have to display the evolution of the bank in time, while others (on certain clients or categories of clients, on personnel profiles etc…) would have to concentrate on a certain approach to these documents, almost independently of time.
- Full-length translations of documents had to be avoided, and explanations kept as short as possible, with a couple of paragraphs for each panel. Information on individual documents would be dealt with in less conspicuous detailed captions.
- Though impossible in some cases, the visual nature of panels should be emphasized by the addition of images, such as engravings and photographs, from other sources than the archives. Whenever the occasion arose of making use of the bank's own photograph collection, these images should be used as generously as possible to convey an easily perceived visual message (as in the case of staff photographs classified according to poses).
- In order to link the selected documents displayed in the museum with the mass of documentation preserved in the archives, it was necessary to transform some spaces of the museum into receptacles for whole series of documents. Visitors would then have the opportunity of grasping the meaning of an archival series, and of browsing through it freely to glean all sorts of information. Following the same logic, and keeping in mind that most of the documents displayed in the museum had been extracted from files containing a number of other documents, visitors should be given the opportunity to view some examples of entire files, constituting the backbone of the archival series.
- If the detailed information contained in the files and in the translation of documents was not to be directly displayed in the main exhibition, there should be a way, for those interested in a more detailed narrative, to access this information. The best way for this seemed to be a virtual tour of the museum and of the archives on a computer screen.
- Although it was obviously indispensable to simplify as much as possible a rather complex and technical narrative, it was also necessary to accept the idea that a proper understanding of the exhibit would require a minimum level of general knowledge.

In the light of all these principles, it appeared that the history of the bank, rather than constituting the exclusive purpose of the museum, would serve as a pretext for an investigation into the political, economic, and social environment of the late Ottoman and early Republican period. The script could thus be read at several levels, depending on the age, background and curiosity of each visitor. A museum of social history to some, it could be viewed by others as a museum of banking, or even as a window into the wealth of information stored in the bank's archive, thus occasionally provoking a more specific curiosity that might result in academic endeavors and scientific research.
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  EDHEM ELDEM  
  Edhem Eldem, responsible for the concept and scenario of the Ottoman Bank Museum, is a professor at the Department of History at Boğaziçi University, where he has been teaching since 1989. In 1989, he started the classification of the Ottoman Bank archives, a catalogue of which he published in 1994. From 1997 on, he has played an active role in the creation and organisation of the Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Centre. His activities linked to the history of the Ottoman Bank include the curatorship of the following exhibitions:
Glimpses from the Past. An Exhibition of the Ottoman Bank Archives (1997)
History through Money. Paper Money from Ottoman Times to Today (1998)
Banks Street. Voyvoda Street from Ottoman Times to Today (2000)
Edhem Eldem is the author of the following works on the history of the bank:
Banque Impériale Ottomane. Inventaire commenté des archives, İstanbul, 1994.
135 Yıllık Bir Hazine. Osmanlı Bankası Arşivinde Tarihten İzler, İstanbul, 1997.
A 135-Year-Old Treasure. Glimpses from the Past in the Ottoman Bank Archives, Istanbul, 1998.
Osmanlı Bankası Arşivi ve Tahsin İsbiroğlu Koleksiyonundan Osmanlı Bankası Banknotları (1863-1914), İstanbul, 1998.
Banknotes of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (1863-1914). Based on the Ottoman Bank Archives and the Tahsin İsbiroğlu Collection, Istanbul, 1999.
A History of the Ottoman Bank, Istanbul, 1999.
Osmanlı Bankası Tarihi, İstanbul, 1999.
Bankalar Caddesi. Osmanlı'dan Günümüze Voyvoda Caddesi. Voyvoda Street from Ottoman Times to Today, İstanbul, 2000.