Face and Profile: Photos of Kazakhs from 150 Years Ago

In 1876, the III International Congress of Eastern Scholars was held in St. Petersburg. The Turkestan Governor-General Konstantin von Kaufman ordered a collection of photographs from the Tashkent photographer Kozlovsky, called "Types of peoples of Central Asia." 

The collection contains 168 photographs. The pictures were taken to show full face and profile. 

Several pictures are of Kazakhs. They are indicated as Kirghiz as the imperial authorities mistakenly called them.

 The Kyrgyz themselves appear in the collection under the name of Karakirgiz. 

 Most pictures only indicate people's nationality and age. Only two Kazakhs signed to indicate which area they are from. They are a 26-year-old man from the vicinity of Tashkent and a 51-year-old man from the vicinity of Kuldzhi, a city that is now located in the Il-Kazakh Autonomous Region of China. 

The photographer's initials, V. F, have been preserved. His work allows us to see what these people looked like 150 years ago.