Evaluation of Promotion Theses of Museologists Prepared Between 1943 and 1973 in Terms of Architectural History

Abstract

Works by museologists with different occupations and titles featuring important documents are in the archive of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums of T.R. Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Archivers recorded them at the Ministry of Culture's inventory as "promotional thesis" and organised them in 330 files from folders 1 to 34. The General Directorate of Classics and Museums demanded such theses from museologists for promotional purposes. Contents and constructs of dissertations about different fields and subjects featured important references. Therefore, these theses have a characteristic to enlarge the scale of research topics or enhance efforts leading to literature scanning for respective research subjects. Thirty-seven of 330 theses with known dates and authors included important information in architectural history and were investigated in the doctoral thesis study. Such 37 dissertations covering the period 1943-1973 were prepared considering Law on Organization of Museums and Observatories numbered 2530 enacted in TGNA on 23rd June 1934. It is the first legal arrangement in Turkish museology's history to officially register museums as separate institutions causing a leap in Turkish museology as of its effective date. With this law, guidebooks illuminating cities' architectural history written by museologists between 1930s and 1970s and published by the Board of Education and Ministry of Culture were prepared alongside promotional theses - products of Turkish museology's progress. This study illustratively evaluates promotional theses written based on law dated 1934 in architectural history. With the study of the 37 theses, written between 1943 and 1973, detection of another respective thesis in the archive and determination of the relevant legislative link and reasoning behind has gained critical importance. When we look at the selection of the topics of the promotion thesis, we see a great variety and substantiality in the subjects. Additionally, it has been targeted to inspire the researchers who have studied in the fields of the topics of respective thesis and their topics. The subjects in these archive documents are archaeological sites, single building scale, urban history studies and period studies. Within the scope of this article, one example of these topics has been selected. The thesis chosen as an example of archaeological sites is Raci Temizer's thesis entitled "Ayazmayeni Koyu Kayapinar Hoyugu Buluntulari" written in 1952. Another thesis is the subject of a single structure scale and M. Hadi Altay's thesis titled "Revan Kosku", written in 1958. The third thesis is an example of urban history studies titled "Kastamonu Eski Eserler Kilavuzu" and it was written by Ahmet Gokoglu in 1949. The last sample promotion thesis chosen as a period study belongs to the Cengiz Koseoglu. The title of the promotion thesis written in 1970 is "Maras'ta Dulkadiroglu Mimarisi". A detailed text about these theses is included in this article study. In addition, the catalogues of these four sample theses, which have been prepared in accordance with the A3 format in the excel file, have been included in the study. The differentiation of promotion theses in catalogues has been in the form of placing only selected sample pages from the text pages and turning all the images contained in the theses into one or more tables. Due to these catalogues, promotion theses have become more descriptive, and evaluations of these theses have been made in detail in many ways. Consequently, this article also emphasises the benefit of this cataloguing method applied for promotion theses. All theses, just like the other theses in the archive of Cultural Assets and Museums General Directorate, are the product of culture policies that started to be applied in the fields of historical works and museums in the Early Republic Period. As stated in the respective acts of law, the promotion of the museum officials as a result of their scientific works prepared in their workplace museums is very important. In addition, the museum officials' examining the architectural works in their theses, both in a visual and literal way is also very important in showing the significance of the contribution of this work not only to the history of architecture but also art history, restoration, archaeology and any other related fields. The Museum Officials criteria in determining the aims for selecting the topics of their theses from filling the gaps in the literature topics, contributing to the museum they work for or working in the fields of their interest or curiosity, shows not only the great contribution of the theses to the Turkish Museum History but also proves that they were prepared in a way to capture the fields of architecture and art history. This study aims to emphasise the importance of this point as well. In order for researchers and scientists to access the data in the theses and use this data in their own studies, it is necessary to reveal these theses contained in the ministry archive.