Olov Janse Photographs

61 Glass Plate and 185 film negatives of various artifacts and archaeological sites reflecting Janse's research throughout China and SE Asia.

Olov R. T. Janse (1892-1985) was a Swedish archaeologist notable for his excavation work at Đông Sơn, Vietnam between 1935-1939 and supporting new research of Chinese art influence in Vietnam during the Bronze Age.

He was born in Norrkoeping, Sweden on August 3, 1892. Janse attended the University of Uppsala for his bachelors (1916), masters (1920), and a doctorate of philosophy in archaeology (1922). Janse married Ronny Sokolsky in 1930. She was involved with his work as both an archaeologist and diplomat. In 1948, the two became United States citizens and Ronny changed her name to Renee.

Janse's first archeological expedition to Vietnam was in 1934-35. It was followed by a second trip in 1936-1938 and a third to the Philippines in 1938-1940. Janse published a three volume work entitled "Archaeological Research in Indo-China" about these expeditions in 1947.

Janse had an extensive career as a curator and lecturer in many international museums and universities. Between 1920-1930, he was the assistant curator of the French National Museum of Antiquities in St. Germain-en-Laye. In 1925-1927, he was the associate professor of national and prehistoric archaeology at the École du Louvre. From 1928 to 1936, he was both a charge de cours (associate professor) at the École pratique des hautes études of the Sorbonne and an assistant curator of the National Historic Museum in Stockholm.

Janse left Europe for the United States in 1938 due to professional and political issues. He was a visiting professor of Far-Eastern Archaeology at Harvard from 1941-1943 and a lecturer on the Far East for the Harvard Summer School in 1945.

With the start of World War II, the US government was interested in his knowledge of Indochina and in 1943 he became a consultant to the Board of Economic Warfare. Between 1943-1945, Janse joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and served as a senior research analyst and the chief of the Southeast Asia Research and Analysis Branch.

After the war, Janse transitioned from an academic career to a diplomatic one with a focus on Vietnam. He was a member of the Preparatory Commission of UNESCO and consultant to the director general of UNESCO between 1946-1947. Between 1947-1955, Janse was a senior research analyst for the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State. In 1958, he was a visiting professor in Saigon under the US Smith-Mundt Act. In 1960, he organized "The Art and Archaeology of Viet-Nam" exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Janse retired in the 1960s and died in 1985.

FSA A2014.02

Janse, Olov, 1892-1985

Cambodia

Vietnam

Philippines

China

Olov Janse Photographs

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Black-and-white negatives

Glass plate negatives

Olov Janse Photographs. FSA.A2014.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Two boxes of minimally organized glass and film negatives.

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Black-and-white negatives

Glass plate negatives

Collection is open for research.