Early research into the Iranian origins of vault construction

Islamicist and head of the Oriental department, British Museum, 1945-1969. Gray was the son of Charles Gray, a surgeon in the (British) Royal Army Medical Corps, and Florence Elworthy Cowell. After attending Bradfield College he entered New College, Oxford University, graduating in 1927. The following year he worked at the British Academy excavations of the great palace of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. He attempted study in Vienna under the singular Vienna-school scholar Josef Rudolf Thomas Strzygowski.

Museum director of Asian art, historian of twentieth-century French art. Salles was the son of Adolphe Salles and Claire Eiffel, the daughter of Gustav Eiffel. As a boy he spent time in his famous grandfather's house and met many prominent people. As a young man he met most of the Fauves and Cubist artists. As a student he studied literature and law. Salles fought as a soldier in the First World War, twice winning the Croix de Guerre. He excavated sites in Iran, Afghanistan and China. He served as secretary to the Direction des Beaux-Arts between 1921 and 1924.

Collector and archaeologist of middle eastern art. After meeting Carl Humann, Sarre traveled to Anatolia to study its medieval monuments. In 1895 and 1896, he visited Phyrigia, Lycaonia, and Pisidia. Sarre discovered several architectural monuments in the area, where he collected epigraphic material. His work interested Arabists such as Bernhard Moritz (1859-1939), Eugen Mittwoch (1876-1942), and Max van Berchem (q.v.).