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Diary in photos, vol. IV, 1938 - Public domain portrait

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Diary in photos, vol. IV, 1938 - Public domain portrait

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Photographs show John D. Whiting's trips around the Middle East region from June 30 to Dec. 31, 1938. Whiting, a member of the American Colony in Jerusalem, worked as a tour guide, businessman, writer, and photographer. Photographs focus on a trip to Syria with Mr. Moore for the National Geographic Magazine, but also include locations in Palestine (present day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) and Lebanon. People depicted include Grace Whiting, Emir Mighim, Consul-General Wadsworth and his wife, "Brother Elias," and "Rajai el Husseini." Includes photographs of the 1938 siege of Jerusalem and lifting of the siege.
Album page image number 1-10 (p. 1-12): Harun al Rashid's minaret at Meskeneh (Syria), Arab carabet with dancers, Damascus; Wadi Kelt, "Cahr" (Sodom apple tree), gardens at Jericho, threshing at Sharon, Ramleh, and Ashdod; new apartments in Tel Aviv, Jewish workers on Gaza road, potter's yard and fising in Gaza.
Album page image number 11-19 (p. 13-21): Cattle, goats, and gleaners near Tell Hum (Capernaum), Jewish women picking and packing grapes at foot of Mt. Carmel, Gypsy (Romany) tent and power lines, man playing instrument at wedding at Nakura (Syria), melons on boat at Tyre, Lebanon; camels with sheeves near Baʻlabakk, Lebanon; car and great stone at Baʻlabakk, spreading apricot juice to dry at Baʻlabakk gardens, and Gypsies (Romanies) dancing in Damascus.
Album page image number 20-36 (p. 22-38): Trip to North Syria with Mr. Moore including the village of Tell Bisneh with beehive houses, Krak des Chevaliers castle and surroundings, fishermen and castle of Raymond of St. Giles in Tripoli, Lebanon; July 14th celebrations in Antioch (Antakya, Turkey), including Turkish troops marching in parade, Turkish and French officers, onlookers including women and Alouites (Alawites or Nosairians), sheep in market, shrine at Suweidiyeh shore, religious festivities of Alouites including musicians, picnicking, and people pounding "burgul" (bulgur).
Album page image number 37-48 (p. 39-51): Trip to North Syria continued: Town of Beilan, Turkey; Jona's pillars, a Roman road between Antioch and Aleppo, village of Treibe (beehive houses), street and putting licorice in sacks, Aleppo; beehive house village between Aleppo and the Euphrates, Bedouin girl with goat, ruins of city walls (possibly an aqueduct) and cathedral in Rusafa, ferry, shrine, and ruins of Harun el Rashid's minaret and mosque in Rakka (Raqqah).
Album page image number 49-63 (p. 52-66): Trip to North Syria continued: Anezeh (Anazeh) camp at Ain Aissa including Emir Mighim with family, watering of camels, portraits of Bedouins, and a woman's litter on a camel; French fort at Ain Arous; camp of a Kurdish emir, Assyrian refugees at Tell Tamar (Tel Tamer) including a man and woman in Assyrian "national costume," priest and manuscript bible, women preparing food and with yarn, and steel irrigating wheel erected by the League of Nations.
Album page image number 64-74 (p. 67-77): Trip to North Syria continued: Market, woman, Kurdish man, peasants, new bridge over the Euphrates, a Sheik's guest house, and irrigation apparatus with horse in Deir ez Zor (Dayr al-Zawr), Bedouin traveling by camel, tower tombs in Palmyra, and a woman at Quteife in "national costume."
Album page image number 75-84 (p. 78-87): Trip to North Syria continued: Merchants and others selling and preparing dried apricot paste ("Kamar ed Din"), Straight Street, coffee shops, man selling "pro-Palestinian revolutionary booklets," and men hand-sawing logs into planks in Damascus; woman doing laundry in Nazareth, "Teggart's (Tegart's) Wall" between Syria and Palestine, rock blockade near Huwara, and military round up at the Damascus Gate, Jerusalem.
Album page image number 85-104 (p. 88-107): "Change to national head coverings" including tarboushes on top of bus stop, Christian girl wearing veil, men wearing kaffiyeh, Polish Jews (Hasidim), and "Rajai el Husseini in kaffiyeh and agal"; police round up at the Jaffa Gate, Greek convent wine press, Brother Elias, "Queen of the Night" flower, Consul-General Wadsworth and Mrs. Wadsworth at home, siege of Jerusalem including people reading a notice at the American Colony store, the government distributing bread, a Greek priest, soldiers on guard and the Jaffa Gate closed; the funeral of Sidki Dijani (Djani), Jerusalem from the Polish Hospice, American Colony patio, Consul Pinkerton's room in the American Colony, Grace Whiting in garden, "Usef", Brother Elias, and Marshal the cook; and twins from the Baby Home.
Arrangement: Photographs arranged chronologically.
LOT title from album.
Most of the photographs were taken by John D. Whiting. G. Eric Matson and others may have also taken some of the photographs. Matson, Whiting, Hanna Safieh, Joseph H. Giries, and others contributed to the work of the Matson Photo Service, the successor to the American Colony Photo Department (1898-1940). For more information about the American Colony Photo Department and the Matson Photo Service see: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.matpc. For more information about the John D. Whiting Collection see: 629_whiting.html
Album has parchment (vellum) bound cover. Handwritten on spine: Diary in Photos, Vol. IV, 1938, Whiting.
Album unpaginated, album page numbers supplied by Library staff. Pages 1, 3-4, 109-109 are blank.
Captions for photographs found in list: Diary in photos, Vol, IV, June 30 to December 31, 1938, included with album. Some additional caption information found in: Film catalogue, No. 1, [1934-1938]. Copy in John D. Whiting Supplementary Archive, Box 2.
John D. Whiting's diaries, correspondence, and other materials are located in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division (Papers of John D. Whiting).
Forms part of: Visual materials from the papers of John D. Whiting (Library of Congress).
Transfer; LC Manuscript Division; 2006; (DLC/PP-2006:051:43).

The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present-day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the Library of Congress collection consists of over 23,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. The American Colony Photo Department in Jerusalem was one of several photo services operating in the Middle East before 1900. Catering primarily to the tourist trade, the American Colony and its competitors photographed holy sites, often including costumed actors recreating Biblical scenes. The firm’s photographers were residents of Palestine with knowledge of the land and people that gave them an advantage and made their coverage intimate and comprehensive. They documented Middle East culture, history, and political events from before World War I through the collapse of Ottoman rule, the British Mandate period, World War II, and the emergence of the State of Israel. The Matson Collection also includes images of people and locations in present-day Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Turkey. Additionally, the firm produced photographs from an East African trip. The collection came to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1981, through a series of gifts made by Eric Matson and his beneficiary, the Home for the Aged of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Los Angeles (now called the Kensington Episcopal Home).

date_range

Date

01/01/1938
place

Location

antioch
create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

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No known restrictions on publication.

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