Josephine Powell Collection, a collection of objects, photographs and documents related to the culture and lifestyle of Anatolian villages and nomads, assembled by the US photographer, collector and traveler, Josephine Powell (1919-2007). The weaving tools and hand-woven items, such as rugs, bags and tents, were donated to the Vehbi Koç Foundation (VKV) in 2006 and are kept in the Sadberk Hanım Museum; another portion of the collection, containing around 35,000 field notes, slides, photographs and books, can be found at ANAMED. Powell’s archive contains nearly 28,000 slides, which have been digitalized, cataloged and made available to the public by the Suna Kıraç Library.
Between September 1 and 14, 2003, an exhibition was held by the History Foundation in the historical Darphane-i Amire building in Istanbul, introducing parts of the collection to the public for the first time. Forty rugs and hand-woven items repaired with funds from JP Morgan Bank were included in the exhibits, alongside three tents from Central and East Anatolia, which were unique examples of their kind. From April 30 to May 2, 2007, as part of the 11th International Conference on Oriental Carpets (ICOC), an exhibition titled, “Giving Back the Colors: Anatolian Rugs and Weaving Tools from the Josephine Powell Collection”, was hosted at the Yıldız Sarayı Silahhane in Istanbul with support from the VKV. Items from the kilim collection Powell donated to the VKV were put on permanent exhibition at the Vehbi Koç Büyükdere Mansion in July 2018. A selection of Powell’s photographs were exhibited to the public, between June 11 and October 21, 2012, as part of the opening exhibition of the ANAMED gallery, titled “What Josephine Saw: 20th Century Photographic Visions of Rural Anatolia”; a book was also published bearing the same title.