Alexander Romaskevich (1885—1942) was a distinguished Russian specialist in Persian language, history, and culture during the early Soviet period. He made several trips to Persia to study dialects, folklore, and various aspects of everyday folk culture as part of the development of current trends in Russian Iranian studies initiated by his teacher V. A. Zhukovsky (1858—1918) and actively continued later by younger Soviet scholars. A. A. Romaskevich donated to the MAE RAS ten collections that he had gathered in Persia. One of these, MAE No. 2471, consists mainly of photographs and largely reflects traditional spectacular art. The collection comprises a unique set of monochrome postcards featuring watercolour costume pictures known as “Types of people in present and recent Persia”, created in a characteristically naive style by anonymous Persian artists. These postcards from the beginning of the 20th century are fascinating examples of the interaction between Eastern and Western cultures, facilitated by the increased accessibility of “exotic countries”. The article forms a part of the “Manuscripts do not burn project”, which commemorates the Orientalists who worked during the blockade and died in besieged Leningrad.