In the fall of 1932, University of Michigan naturalist Walter N. Koelz traveled to northwest India to lead a scientific collecting expedition in the rugged Himalayan regions of Western Tibet. Some eighteen months later he returned to the United States with a remarkable collection of biological specimens and an array of objects—Buddhist paintings, ritual objects, textiles, and household goods—acquired from monasteries, households, and merchants. This book presents the diary entries Koelz wrote at the end of each day throughout his expedition, recounting in detail each day’s travels, bookended by a chapter contextualizing his acquisition of sacred Buddhist objects and an appendix that presents previously unpublished thangka paintings that he collected.

Naturalist and zoologist Walter Koelz traveled to Iran on a project of plant exploration (sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) from late 1939 to early 1941. With him were three companions: Rup Chand, Wangyel, and Rinchen Gialtsen. Together they brought back 3000 seed samples, 4000 herbarium specimens, and a collection of bird skins. Koelz’s diary of that journey is presented in this volume, with an introduction by Henry T. Wright. Includes dozens of black and white photos.

This richly illustrated volume examines the remarkable Kashmiri shawls of the Walter Koelz Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. Part I presents the history, production, forms, and ornamentation of Kashmiri shawls, focusing on the impact of social contexts and the advent of the Jacquard loom on shawl development. Part II is a detailed descriptive catalogue of the shawls in the Koelz Collection. An accompanying CD-ROM includes color illustrations of the shawls in the collection as well as a transcribed manuscript by Koelz.