Palestine

1892 · 57643 — <p>PHOTOGRAPHS 1890s INCLUDING SOME OF JEWISH COLONISTS</p><p>oblong folio album 28 x 27.5 cms. 22 thick card leaves on guards on the card sides are mounted 170 original sepia tinted photographs 9.5 x 12 cms. 4 photographs per 'page' except two 'pages' at the end with 3 photographs and the last 'page' blank all photographs neatly captioned in pen bound in contemporary half black morocco spine with gilt decorated raised bands black cloth on sides front cover boldly lettered at centre 'Palestine' and at foot "M. & A. W." and 1892 or 3 final numeral defaced cloth on fore edges of both boards damp stained with loss of the final numeral of the date see below front endpapers likewise damp stained at fore edges contents otherwise very good.</p><p>The damp damage to the fore-edge of the cloth has caused the loss of the gilt on the last numeral of the date but a trace remains of the top part of the impressed numeral and from that shape it must be either a 2 or a 3.<br />This album records a visit and tour through Palestine by two English speaking persons "M & A. W" that we have not been able to identify. The photographs obviously taken by one of the party record their progress guides local people villages bedouin encampments encountered buildings horses etc. One photograph on the first page clearly shows a member of the travelling party a fairly elderly woman about to travel on a mule-borne palanguin. Another of the party in a boat about to cross the Sea of Galilee appears to show two women. Places depicted include Sebastiych in Samaria Shumem modern Sulan of which there are many views Bethel Mount Tabor region Sea of Gallilee and the River Jordan Atlit Castle Tanturah modern Tantura Calvary Mar Saba monastery views along the road to Hebron and of the Russian hospice there etc. Very many of photographs show local people encountered along the way and three photographs at Tanturah show "Jewish colonists" there. Baron Rothschild owned land there and had in 1884 a Russian Jewish farmer establish a farm there and "In 1891 Baron Rothschild financed the development of a bottle factory in Tantura as he planned to use the fine sand on the shore to manufacture glass bottles for the fledgling wine industry . A building was constructed . dozens of workers were hired and three ships were purchased to transport raw material and bottles. But he abandoned the factory in 1895 after a string of failures" wikipedia. Presumably these colonists were attached to that enterprise. A number of photographs include Abraham Lyons their dragoman translator and guide the only person actually here identified by name. Lyons is recorded as a Jerusalem based dragoman in Baedeker's <em>Palestine and Syria Handbook for Travellers</em> 1867 and in "Letter from Jerusalem" in <em>The Rockland Co Journal</em> vol.xxxiii May 1883 "dragoman Lyons" is described as a "Christian Israelite".<br />The photographs are in good condition with only a few faded.</p> hardcover