Documentary architectural historian of the middle east. Butler was born to Edward Marchant Butler and Helen Belden Crosby (Butler). He was educated privately at the Lyons Collegiate Institute and the Berkeley School in New York, which allowed him to enter Princeton University as a sophomore, class of 1892.

Early research into the Iranian origins of vault construction

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.).

Architectural historian and archaeologist of middle eastern churches. Vogüé stemmed from the ancient aristocratic family of the Vivarais, long settled on the banks of the Ardèche river. His father was Léonce de Vogüé (1805-1877), a French bureaucrat, and his mother Henriette de Machault d'Arnouville (1808-1864). His ancestors had been participants in the Third Crusade. His initial interest was in science and he early trained in mathematics. He mastered Greek, Latin, Phoenician, Syriac and Hebrew. As a young man he worked in the diplomatic service in Petrograd, Russia in 1850.