Photos from the Ephraim Speiser Collection, courtesy of the Penn Museum, digitized as part of the Sersal Project.

Taken between 1930 and 1937, the photographs were never meant to tell the story of the Yezidis. They were, in some ways, accidental – taken by a team of American archaeologists led by Polish-born Ephraim Speiser.

In 2022, Katherine Blanchard, Keeper of Near East Collections at the Penn Museum, came across a striking photo of Lalish from the 1930s.

Out of this discovery, a new initiative took shape: The Sersal Project, named after the Yezidi New Year. The goal was not just to preserve the photographs, but to return them to the community.

In collaboration with the Penn Museum, the University of Victoria, the Mirzo Music Foundation in Sinjar, Catholic Relief Services, and the Goethe-Institut in Erbil, the team began restoring, digitizing, and researching the images.

A key part of this work was led by Alessandro Pezzati, Senior Archivist at the Penn Museum. Pezzati coordinated the digitization and repatriation of nearly 300 unpublished photographs.

Listening meant taking the photos back to where they were taken – showing them to elders in Sinjar, Bashiqa, and other towns. The reaction was emotional. People recognized faces, remembered names, pointed out clothing, even identified homes that no longer exist.

The Penn Museum decided to do something rare: make the photos freely accessible for anyone in the Yezidi community to use, with proper credit, but without restrictions.

What the Sersal Project offers is not just old images, but a new way to think about archives. It is about returning history to the people who lived it. In a time when so much has been taken from the Yezidis, these photographs give something back: memory, dignity, presence.