Photographers accompanied the Imperial British Army forces throughout the battles of World War I in Palestine, starting at the Suez Canal in 1915 and continuing through the capture of Damascus in 1918.
Allenby entering Jerusalem December 11, 1917
Turkish Camel Corps in Be'er Sheva (1917, Library of Congress archives)
The grand scale of the fighting in Palestine is not fully recognized today even by historians, with attention often focused on the European front. One statistic may put the fighting into perspective: The British army suffered more than half a million casualties; the Turks even more.
The Israel Daily Picture site has presented hundreds of pictures of the fighting between the British Imperial Forces and the Turkish and German forces on the battlefields of Sinai, Gaza, Be'er Sheva, and Jerusalem. Most of the photographs, such as those on this page, were found in the U.S. Library of Congress' American Colony collection.
Click on a picture to enlarge.
Click on the caption to view the original picture.
Austrian army troops approaches Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate (1916) 
Turkish troops preparing to attack the Suez Canal 1915
We present below a film from the British Imperial War Museum of British Commander Edmund Allenby's entrance into Jerusalem on December 11, 1917.
According to the Imperial War Museum synopsis accompanying the film:
General Allenby walking through the Jaffa Gate into the Old City of Jerusalem. Click HERE to view the video
The General entered Jerusalem on 11 December, accompanied by his staff (T. E. Lawrence ["Lawrence of Arabia"] among them), French and Italian officers, and various other international representatives. At the Jaffa gate he was greeted by a guard of Commonwealth and Allied troops; dismounting, he and his comrades entered the city on foot, as instructed. Allenby had been less than fifteen minutes in the city. After 400 years of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem had passed into British hands..
We present here Part 2 from the Church of Ireland Library's photographic collection of pictures taken by David Brown in 1897. View Part 1HERE
Carriage parking lot outside of Jerusalem's Old City's Jaffa Gate and beneath David's Citadel. The photo pre-dates
the opening made adjacent to Jaffa Gate to enable entrance of the German Emperor's carriage in 1898. View
inside Jaffa Gate HERE Credit: RCB Library, 1897).
The Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body Library's full collection can be viewed HERE.
The photos here are presented with the permission of the RCB Library.
Click on pictures to enlarge; click on the captions to view the original photo. Subscribe to receivewww.israeldailypicture.com in your email by entering your address in the right sidebar.
On the road to the Jerusalem train station with Jaffa Gate and David's Citadel in the background. Other 19th
Century photographers also used this same perspective for a landscape picture of Jerusalem.
(Credit: RCB Library, 1897)
Rachel's tomb between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (Credit: RCB Library, 1897) View a previous feature on
Rachel's tomb HERE
Money changer in Jerusalem (apparently Jewish). A picture of money changers was also a standard photo taken by
photographers visiting the Holy Land, perhaps because of the New Testament story of Jesus and the money changers.
View an earlier posting on money changers and their unique tables HERE. (Credit: RCB Library, 1897)
"Plowing with an ox and ass" -- the original caption. This is another standard picture by 19th century photographers,
apparently because of the Biblical prohibition "Thou shall not plow with an ox and an ass together" (Deuteronomy XX).
View a previous posting on photographing Biblical prohibitions HERE. (Credit: RCB Library, 1897)
Responsible Archivists Preserve Their Photographic Treasures
The Golden Gate of the Old City. The sealed gates, the closest to the location of the Jewish Temples, face the
Mt. of Olives. View a previous posting on the Golden Gate, also known as Sha'ar Harachamim, HERE.
(Credit: RCB Library, 1897)0Add a comment
In 2011, Rev. Stephen White brought to Dublin several old cardboard boxes found in the old Church of Ireland Killaloe deanery in Limerick. He delivered them to Dr. Susan Hood, the archivist for the Church of Ireland's Representative Church Body Library.
What a treasure looks like. Boxes of lantern slides -- the precursor to
photographic slides and slide projectors
Dr. Hood understood she had
just received a photographic treasure: hundreds of century-old "lantern slides" of sites in Ireland, India, and the Holy Land.
Coming ashore at Jaffa Port (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). Note the
Turkish flag flying
Dr. Hood deserves credit for preserving the images, digitizing them last year and posting them on the RCB's homepage.
We thank her for granting us permission to publish the RCB photographs.
Last year, Dr. Hood and BBC undertook an investigation to discover the name of hitherto anonymous photographer. They were able to identify him as David Brown, a soap manufacturer from Donaghmore who was also an amateur photographer. In 1897 he joined a pilgrimage led by his brother in law, a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland.
We present here Part 1 of the RCB Library Collection.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original.
Damascus Gate (Credit: RCB Library, 1897) View inside Damascus Gate HERE
View Herod's Gate HERE
View Lions Gate HERE
Jews praying at the Western "Wailing" Wall. The day is a Sabbath or Jewish Festival since the men are wearing
their Sabbath finery, including fur hats. The photograph is very unusual since in virtually all of the other 19th
century pictures at the Wall men are not wearing their customary prayer shawls (talitot) perhaps because of a
Jewish prohibition of carrying objects on the Sabbath, or because of the harassment of Muslim authorities.
(Credit: RCB Library, 1897)
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The man on the right is believed to be the photographer, David Brown. Note
the Turkish soldier on duty inside the Church. (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). A Turkish soldier was also on guard
in Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus). See below.
Joseph's Tomb (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). Certain
pictures, such as this one, were almost obligatory to
all visiting photographers assembling a travelogue.
Turkish guard inside Joseph's Tomb (Library
of Congress 1900)
Next: Part 2 of the Irish Church collection
A "hides market," according to the RCB's Library caption, but no location is given. Actually, the photo is taken
in Jerusalem at the entrance of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Looming over the complex
on the hill is the Tifferet Yisrael Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter (Credit: RCB Library, 1897). The
synagogue was destroyed along with the Jewish Quarter in 1948.
To read more on the Church of Ireland RCB Library collection and its discovery click HERE andHERE and HERE
2View comments
We are always on the lookout for libraries and archives digitizing their collections of photographs of the Holy Land from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In future weeks we hope to present vintage pictures from Ireland, Arizona, and California archives.
A photograph from the Emory collection published last month. We
enlarged the sign, but were unable to decipher all of the writing.
Why? Because the photos are valuable historical evidence of Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael 150 years ago, well before Theodore Herzl and the Zionist idea, years before the Holocaust and the State of Israel's establishment.
Moreover, as we research we often find pictures of better quality and with greater detail, such as these pictures of the money changer in the Old City.
The sign in the Emory collection
listing Rabbi Kook as the
rabbinic supervisor. To what?
The money changer?
The same picture -- not brown from age and without cropping. This photo will
appear in a future feature on a California university's collection. The full
sign in Hebrew and Yiddish shows an advertisement for cheese. Another
sign advertises a printing shop
The full sign advertises cheese
products made in Chedera with
the supervision of Rabbi Kook of
Jaffa. The ad promotes" spoiled
butter and cheese," which, when
fried, was considered a delicacy
Click on pictures to enlarge.
Click on captions to view the original.
The differences
between two pictures
"Jerusalem - Road to the Station." The road starts at the Jaffa Gate
and passes over the Hinom Valley and Sultan's Pool (Chatham
University Archives, circa 1895)
We recently published incredible hand-colored slides from Chatham University.
The adjacent picture, although scratched and dark, is a beautiful landscape scene of the area between the Jerusalem train station and Jaffa Gate.
Below it is a slide of the same picture from the Library of Congress' mint collection of pictures from the Holy Land. The initials P.Z. on the bottom left of the picture indicates that it was produced by at the Photochrom and Photoglob company in Zurich in the mid-1890s. According to the Library of Congress, photochrom prints are "ink-based images produced through the direct photographic transfer of an original negative on litho and chromographic printing plates.
Several hand-colored pictures have appeared in www.israeldailypicture.com in the last two years. We will publish a feature on the Library of Congress' photochrome collection in the near future.
Road to Jerusalem station (Library of Congress collection) 0Add a comment
- The digitizing of vintage photographs continues in archives and libraries around the world. Last year the New York Public Library digitized its photographic collections and posted them online. The photos in the Library's Dorot Jewish Division include hundreds of 19th Century pictures of Jerusalem and Palestine.
Below we post several of the pictures taken in the first years of photography by pioneers such as Félix Bonfils and Auguste Salzmann. The images were captured by their early cameras while the region was under Turkish role, and years before World War I, the emergence of the Arab nationalist movement, Theodore Herzl's Zionist movement, and the creation of the State of Israel.
Rare picture of Jews at the Western Wall, with signature of Félix Bonfils (NYPL Digital Gallery,1894). Most early
photos of this area were taken at ground level and did not show the tiny area where Jews were permitted to pray
Inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. Other collections possess this photograph, but few are of similar
quality and clarity. (NYPL Digital Gallery, circa 1870).
Another view of the inside of Jaffa Gate by Auguste Salzmann
(NYPL Digital Gallery, 1856)
Damascus Gate by Auguste Salzmann (NYPL Digital Gallery, 1856)
Zion Gate, also known as David's Gate,
by Salzmann (NYPL Digital Gallery, 1856)
Lions Gate, also known as St. Stephens Gate,
by Salzmann (NYPL Digital Gallery, 1856)
Jews praying at the Western Wall by Robertson, Beato & Co. (NYPL Digital Gallery, 1857)
Click on photographs to enlarge. Click on the captions to view the original pictures.
Responsible Archivists Preserve Their Photographic Treasures0Add a comment
- DEC2
More Amazing Photos by Shlomo and Sonia Narinsky -- Jewish Photographers Exiled by the Turks, Swept Up by the Nazis
"A Vernomito (Yemenite) Jew in Jerusalem"
(Library of Congress, 1921) See also "A
Spanish Jew of Jerusalem"
"A Bedouin in his happy mood,"
(Library of Congress, 1921)
A rabbi and his grandson (Ynet News)
We first introduced our readers to the Narinskys' photographs in July 2013.
Last week we were contacted by Laurent Phillippe who introduced us to his Jewish post card blog which contains more photos taken by the Narinsky's. We're happy to present them here and to encourage readers to visit Phillippe's site.
To recap, Shlomo Narinsky was born in the Ukraine in 1885 and studied art in Moscow,
Paris and Berlin before moving to Palestine where he set up a studio. In 1916, Shlomo and his wife were exiled to Egypt by the Turkish rulers. They returned to the Land of Israel after the British captured the territory in 1918.
Jewish woman (Phillippe collection, 1921)
In 1932, the Narinskys opened a studio in Paris, but Shlomo was arrested when the Nazis captured France. He was later exchanged for a German spy caught in Palestine after the intercession of David Ben-Gurion and Yitzchak Ben-Zvi. The Narinskys returned to Israel, eventually moving to Haifa where Shlomo taught as a photography teacher. He died in 1960, relatively unknown.
Laurent Phillippe's collection also includes many vintage postcards/photographs of Jewish life a century ago in North Africa and Europe.
Subscribe to www.israeldailypicture.com by entering your email address in the right column of the Internet site.
Jewish village of Yavniel established in the Galilee in 1901 (Phillippe collection, 1921) 
Beneath Mt.Tabor in the Galilee (Phillippe collection, 1921) 0Add a comment
Golden Gate [Shaar HaRachamim in Hebrew] of Jerusalem's Old City (Oregon State University Archives) See more on
the Golden Gate here
We continue with more photos and original captions from the Oregon State University Archives. View Part 1 here. The captions provide a fascinating commentary on historical understanding of areas in the Holy Land a century ago, including a comment about "Jewish Zionists." The pictures are dated as "circa 1910."
View the Oregon State University Archives' complete collection here.
The Archives' captions appear in blue below.
Golden Gate image (above] description from historic lecture booklet: "The Golden Gate is in the East wall of the Haram or temple area. Ezekiel, the prophet, says that it was shut in his day and must not be opened for any man, "for the Lord, the God of Israel hath entered in by it , therefore it shall be shut." Ezekiel 44:1,2. Traditionally, this is the Beautiful Gate of Acts 3:2, but that gate was evidently much nearer to the Temple. But actually dates from the fifth or perhaps the seventh, Christian century. It was restored in 1892; it is still architecturally interesting from the inside, where a staircase ascends to the roof."
Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem (Oregon State University Archives)
"One of the handsome southern approaches to the mosque of Omar, a Mohammedan temple of religion. The mosque is on the higher level. In the immediate foregrounds is one of the famous fountains of the Temple area, and men may be seen at their religious ablutions. When one reaches the approach it is necessary to rent slippers. They are always kept on hand for the purpose of entering the Mosque and are retained until the visitor finished not only the Mosque of Omar, but also the Mosque el-Aksa on the south end of the area. This is an act of reverence just as we would remove our hats when going into a church."
The interior of the Dome of the Rock (Oregon State University Archives) Note how the crevices of the Rock are
deeper than those seen in other photos of the surface."This rock has been regarded as sacred from the earliest times. Long before the Hebrew occupation of Palestine [Editor's note:some 3,500 years ago], this striking formation led the ancients to view this as a Holy mount. Its length is about 58 feet, the breadth nearly 52 feet. It extends above the surrounding pavement from four to six and half feet. Here on Mount Moriah, which is called also Zion, Abraham was about to offer Isaac. Here by the threshing-floor of Araunsh, David saw the destroying angel. Here also Solomen [sic] built the temple, but this rock was not within it as it is within the Mosque. It is probable that the altar of sacrifice stood on the rock.The interior of the Mosque, which is an octagon with sides 66 feet 7 inches in length, is 174 feet in diameter. It is divided by its two series of supports into three concentric parts. The pillars were all taken from older buildings. An inscription in the oldest Arabic character, Cufic, records that "Adballah el-Iman el-Melik, prince of the faithful erected this dome in the year 72-692 A.D.["] It is in the Arabian style."
Safed [Tzfat in Hebrew], holy Jewish city in the Galilee (Oregon State University Archives)
See more on Safed here
"About ten miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee on a very high hill (2,749 feet) of the ancient province of Galilee, is situated the city of Safed, which is thought by some to be the city referred to by Jesus in His sermon on the mount (Matt 5:14).[Editor's note: There is little archaeological evidence of Safed's existence as a population center at the time of the Second Temple.]You remember the words of our Lord to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount? "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." He may have pointed to this very hill and this very city, now known as Safed, in northern Galilee. Although no place having this location is named in the Bible, it is probable that in Christ's day, a city was standing on this hill, for in the New Testament period, this land was densely populated. Safed stands as a landmark, seen in every direction, and well illustrated the words of Jesus regarding the prominence of his disciples in the world."
Christian pilgrims on their way from the Jordan River to Jerusalem (Oregon State University Archives)
"This picture is taken along the Jericho road looking west toward Jerusalem. The subject of the picture "Pilgrims" is one that has its place in all histories of religion. The present motley crowd is made up of a number of nationalities, but the majority are Russians. These have already been to the Jordon at their reputed places of the baptism of Jesus. and are now returning to the Holy City to partake in the festivities around the Holy Sepulchre which takes place at Easter."
Christian Street in Jerusalem's Old City (Oregon State University Archives)
Image description from historic lecture booklet: "Christian Street is a thoroughfare running north and south ending at David Street. It is by far the cleanest street in all Jerusalem. There is a new "Jerusalem" now being built by the Jewish Zionists, who are settling in Palestine in great numbers. They are establishing a university and are spending millions of dollars in modernizing the city and whole region."
The serpentine road between Jerusalem and Jaffa (Oregon State University Archives)
"A good macadamized road extends from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The section of road in the picture with its serpentine windings is six or eight miles from Jerusalem."
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click on captions to view the original picture.
View the Oregon State University Archives' complete collection here.1View comments
- NOV27
Century-Old Photos Revealed by Oregon State University, Part 1. The Collection Includes an Interesting Historical Commentary
Rachel's Tomb (circa 1910) Note the camels and carriages. (Oregon State University Archives)
Oregon State University has an unusual collection of 100+ year old photographs of Palestine -- not necessarily unusual because of the photographs, which are exceptional, but also because of the historic narration provided to most of the pictures.
The "historic lecture booklet" referenced in many of the captions, explains Trevor Sandgathe, the Public Services Coordinator of OSU's Special Collections & Archives Research Center, "is a 60-page document containing captions for each of the images in this particular set of lantern slides. The booklet was for internal use and therefore unpublished."
Tiberias (circa 1910, Oregon State University Archives)
We provide here a first set of OSU's pictures and the original captions (in blue).
"Tiberias ... is on the western shore of the lake of Galilee about seven miles from its southern end. The lake lies 627 feet below the level of the Mediterranean; the city is on a plain a few feet above the lake. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Tiberias became the seat of many Jewish schools. Here the Mishna was complied [sic] and published about A.D. 220, and the Palestinian Talmud about 420. Here the vowel points were added to the Hebrew Bible about 600 A.D. Of its present population of 4,000 two-thirds are Jews."
"Leaving the temple area by the Cotton Gate, a turn to the left will bring one to the wailing place of the Jews which is a portion of the western wall of the temple area.
The Jews' Wailing Place- Outer Wall of Temple (circa 1910,
Oregon State University Archives)The figures leaning against the weather-beaten wall, shedding tears, present a touching scene. Some professionals come to mourn for others, whose business detains them, but one old woman was actually bathing the walls and flagstones below with hot tears. On a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning, great throngs of Jews may be seen here all unconscious of the presence and clicking of cameras. This is as close to the temple area as the Jews ever go, for none of them wish to commit the enormous sin of treading upon the Holy of Hollies. As nearly as the Middle Ages, probably, the Jews came hither to wail. They are free to do so now, but in ages past they had to pay large sums for this privilege."
Jaffa Gate (prior to 1908 when a clock tower was built at the gate, post-1898
when the wall was breached to build this road (circa 1910,
Oregon State University Archives) More pictures of Jaffa Gate here"The Jaffa gate is the only gate on the western side of Jerusalem. It is so called because through it passes the road and the traffic to and from Jaffa.It is one of eight gates in the city wall, of which one, the golden Gate, had long been walled up. the Jaffa gate is called by the Moslem, Bab el-Khalil, that is Gate of the Friend (of God) - Abraham, because from this gate is the road to Hebron where Abraham lived.The scene is liveliest on Sunday, and on Friday --- the holy day of the Mohammedans. Then the Jaffa road appears as the principal promenade of the natives."
Responsible Archivists Preserve Their Photographic Treasures
"Beer-Sheba (the wall [sic] of seven) is the name of one of the oldest towns in Palestine. It is the most southern city of Palestine. Here are found seven wells, two large ones and five smaller ones called Abraham's wells.
Abraham's Well, Beer Sheba (circa 1910, Oregon State University Archives)
The wells of Beer Sheba were a strategic location during the battles of
World War I. Read more herePerhaps no other name is better known in Palestine than is Beer-Sheba. It was first assigned to Judah and afterwards to Simeon (Josh. 15:28, 19;2) On the return from Exile, Beer-Sheba was again peopled by Jews. In Roman times Beer-Sheba was a very large village with a garrison. It was the seat of a bishopric in the early Christian times before the country was conquered by the Muslims."
Next: Oregon State University Collection, Part 20Add a comment
Research by this publication indicates that in recent years libraries and archives around the world have begun to digitize the vintage photographs stored in their files and basements for many decades.
Prayers at the Western Wall. What's unusual about
the photo?
Besides the vast Library of Congress digitized collection that we have extensively focused on,Israel Daily Picture has also published historic digitized photos from -- New York Public Library
- Harvard Library
- Emory University Library
- Dundee (Scotland) Medical School Archives
- Private family collections, including the "Cigarbox Collection,"
- Oregon State University
- Getty Collection
- Chatham University Archives
- Palestine Exploration Fund
In future weeks we will present more essays and incredible photographs from the collections of a European church and two U.S. university archives. We are in the process of securing permission from the archivists and librarians before we publish them, and we are searching for more such collections.
A Jerusalem synagogue. What was its fate?
We thank the librarians and archivists who have already digitized their collections and granted us permission to post their photographs. As our million visitors can testify, the photographs will be viewed around the world.
We provide credits and links in all future postings. For now, we present two "coming attraction" teasers.Enter your email address in the right column and receive our postings by email.0Add a comment
- NOV24
The Chatham Library Photo Treasures Part 3, Jerusalem, Holy to All Religions. Responsible Archivists Are Digitizing their Vintage Pictures
Beneath Robinson's arch on the western wall of the Temple Mt. complex (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890)
The Chatham Library archives contains 110 photos of the Holy Land, but we have focused on the photos of Jerusalem. We present today the third part of our series.
Reconstruction model of the Arch
(Wikimedia Commons)
We express our admiration and gratitude to the archivists at Chatham University for digitizing these hand-colored slides dating back to about 1890.
The picture of Robinson's Arch published above is the base of a massive arch built by King Herod. Archaeologists believe it was the anchor for a large bridge or staircase from the top of the Temple Mount.
The Chatham collection also contains a map of Jerusalem.
Map of Jerusalem (Chatham University Archives, circa 1895). Note the "Railroad
Sta" on the bottom left. The Jerusalem Train Station was completed in 1892.
Note that few buildings were to be found outside of the Old City walls.
The Jerusalem Railroad station was completed in 1892, and can be located at the bottom left of the map. The map, therefore, was printed after 1892.
The reference to the train station can also date the following picture's caption. The photograph was taken near the location of the Mt Zion Hotel of today, itself the refurbished St. John's Eye Hospital established in 1882.
"Jerusalem - Road to the Station." The road starts at the Jaffa Gate and passes over the Hinom Valley
and Sultan's Pool (Chatham University Archives, circa 1895)
The Mosque of Omar (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890). The second mosque on the Temple Mount,
the al-Aqsa Mosque, is holier to Muslims than the Mosque of Omar, but 19th and early 20th century photographers
focused much more on "the Dome of the Rock" Mosque of Omar
Inside the Dome of the Rock, Mosque of Omar (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890). The photo
appears to be a colorization of a photo by Maison Bonfils. According to Jewish tradition, the rock is the
foundation stone of the Jewish Temples. See more here.
Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) 
Amidst the ancient Jewish graves are the tombs of "Absalom (from left to right), Zacharias
and James," in the Kidron Valley (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890)0Add a comment
The Labor Party of Israel elected its new leader yesterday, MK Yitzchak "Buji" Herzog, a veteran Israeli politician.
Rabbi Isaac Herzog addressing a graduation ceremony at a flying school
at Lydda (Lod) airport in 1939 (Library of Congress)
Many observers of Israeli politics know that he is the son of the late President of Israel, Chaim Herzog, and Aura Herzog, the sister of Suzy, Abba Eban's widow.
Buji Herzog's lineage is also documented in these pictures from the Library of Congress' archives. His grandfather, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, was the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Ireland and Palestine (and after 1948, the Chief Rabbi of Israel). Rabbi Herzog succeeded Rabbi Avraham I. Kook. Today's new Labor Party leader was born a year after grandfather died and was given his name.
MK Herzog's grandmother, Sarah Herzog, "The Rabbanit," is pictured here leading a 1939 women's demonstration against the British "White Paper" which severely restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine, thereby slamming the door to Jews attempting to leave burning Europe. She (in the dark suite) is pictured with other "leading ladies" of the Jewish "Yishuv," Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi (right) and Ita Yellin. Rachel was married to Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, Israel's second president. Ita was married to Prof. David Yellin, a leading educator.
Rabbanit Herzog in the dark suit, between Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi (r)
and Ita Yellin (Library of Congress, 1939)
See an earlier posting on "The Rabbanit's" 1939demonstration here.0Add a comment
- NOV21
The Chatham Library Photo Treasures Part 2, the Walls & Gates of Jerusalem Responsible Archivists Are Digitizing their Vintage Pictures
Panorama of Jerusalem and the walls of the city. Note how few buildings were outside the walls of the Old City.
(Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) Click on pictures to enlargeThe Chatham University is not the only library to digitize their vintage pictures from Palestine. In recent weeks we have discovered newly-scanned collections at several more libraries and even a European church. We will present the collections in future postings.
The Chatham University Archives placed all 110 colored slides from the"Holy Land Lantern Slides"online, and in this posting we present a selection to focus on the collection's pictures of Jerusalem's walls and gates.
Another Jerusalem Panorama taken from Mt Scopus (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) 
Jaffa Gate (Chatham University Archives circa 1890)
This picture of Jaffa Gate has been featured in previous postings when we found it in other collections.
We also determined that the photo was taken prior to 1898 because of a glimpse of the moat wall on the right side of the picture.
The wall was torn down and the moat filled in so that the Germany emperor's carriage could enter.
View other historical (black and white) pictures of the Damascus Gate at our previous posting.
Damascus Gate (Chatham University Archives)
There are no pictures of the Zion, Dung and Herod Gates of the Old City. The "New Gate" of the Old City, an entrance built for access into the Christian Quarter, was constructed in 1889, after the photographs were taken.
The "lions" carved on both sides of the gate are actually panthers, the symbol of the Mamluk Sultan Baybars (1223-1277). The panthers were believed to have been part of a Mamluki structure and placed at the gate by Suleiman to commemorate the Ottoman victory over the Mamluks in 1517. View an earlier posting on Lions Gate here.
Lions Gate, also known as St. Stephen's Gate (Chatham University Archives)
See our previous feature on Sha'ar Harachamim and the graves beneath it here.
The sealed Sha'ar Harachamim, or the Golden Gate, taken from Gethsemane Garden (Chatham University Archives)
Click on photos to enlarge. Click on the caption to view the original picture.
Next: Inside Jerusalem0Add a comment
- NOV19
Another Photographic Treasure Trove Discovered: 120-Year-Old Colored Slides from Chatham University, Part 1
The Western Wall in Jerusalem (hand-colored, Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) The photo's
caption reads "Jesus' Waiting Place." A case of bad handwriting? Other photographers of the time captioned
their pictures, "Jews' Wailing Place."
In the need for library and archival preservation, modern technology is certainly a friend of antiquity. Vintage photographs, some stored for over a century in old libraries, are now being digitized and often posted Online. Such is the case with this treasure of "Holy Land Lantern Slides" we found in Chatham University's archives.
Chatham University, a 150-year-old women's undergraduate school in Pittsburgh, digitized their slides in 2009. According to Rachel M. Grove Rohrbaugh, the school's archivist and public service librarian, "most of the slides roughly date to circa 1880-1900. We don’t have specific information on the photographer(s) or how they were used here at Chatham, but they were likely used for instruction in world history or cultural studies."
View of Hinom Valley in Jerusalem (Chatham University Archives, circa 1880). The photo, probably taken from
near the Jaffa Gate, shows the Montefiore windmill, built in 1858, and the Mishkenot Sha'anaim homes beneath it.
Are the blades of the windmill blurry because they were moving? That could provide a date for the photo: The
mill stopped turning in 1876.
We thank Chatham University Library for permission to publish these well-preserved hand-painted lantern slides.
Kerosene lanterns designed to
project slides (YouTube)
In the 1880s, before movies or electricity, pictures such as these were projected in front of classes or audiences using a kerosene-lit lamp fitted with special lenses.
The slides were produced by optical manufacturers who sold the lanterns. The makers of the Chatham slides were identified by Chatham's archivist as T.H McAllister Co. and Williams, Brown, and Earle, of New York and Philadelphia respectively.
Joseph's Tomb in Nablus (Shchem) (Chatham University Archives, circa 1880) 
Inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The moat on the right of the picture indicates the picture was
taken prior to the 1898 arrival of the German emperor. when the moat was filled in. What does the large sign
at the end of the road read? (Chatham University Archives)
An enlargement of the picture shows a sign, "Mission to the Jews," inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.
German, Anglican, and Scottish Protestant church missionaries were very active in the Holy Land in the late 19th century.
At the time, this intersection of the Old City was probably one of the busiest ones in Jerusalem.
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Click on the captions to view the originals.
Next: Part 2 of the Chatham Collection2View comments
E-zine #1 of the "Jews of Palestine" series
Editor's note: Israel Daily Picture now contains more than one thousand pictures and 350 photo essays on the Holy Land. We will continue to add more vintage photographs as more and more historic pictures are digitalized in the libraries and archives around the world.
We present today an "E-zine" experiment, an electronic magazine "Jews of Palestine" in which we group the publication around specific topics.Today's topic focuses on America's role in the life of the Jews of Palestine. Future E-zines will focus on World War I in Palestine, the synagogues of Jerusalem, Yemenite immigrants of the 19th century, the Gates of Jerusalem, Jewish holidays and festivals, Jewish industry, the building of the Jewish state, and more. The series will show the Jewish life in Eretz Yisrael years before Theodore Herzl's Zionist manifesto and well before the founding of the State of Israel.Here is our first edition. Please let us know your opinion in the comment section below.America and Palestine's Jews
Photographic History of American Involvement in the Holy Land 1850-1948The secret identity of American preacher Mendenhall John Dennis (Mendel Diness of Jerusalem)
In 1988, John Barnier visited a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota. There he found and purchased eight boxes of old photographic glass plates. Fortunately, Barnier is an expert in the history of photographic printing.
He had little idea that he had uncovered a historic treasure. Later, he viewed the plates and saw that they included old pictures of Jerusalem. He contacted the Harvard Semitic Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its large collection of old photographs from the Middle East.
On some of the plates they found the initials MJD. Until then the name Mendel Diness was barely known by scholars. It was assumed that with the exception of one or two photos his collection was lost. Click to see moreAmerican volunteers helped the British liberate the Holy Land from the Turks
The history of the Jewish Legion that fought in Palestine in World War I is relatively unknown.
Many of the soldiers were recruited from the ranks of the disbanded Zion Mule Corps, Palestinian Jews exiled by the Turks in April 1917 who were recruited in Egypt, or from Diaspora Jewry recruited in Canada and the United States.
As many as 500 Jewish Legion soldiers came from North America; many of them were originally from Poland or Russia. One Legionnaire was Pvt. Click to see more
Who knew Calvin Coolidge met the Chief Rabbi of Palestine in the White House?
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935) was a renowned Talmud scholar, Kabbalist and philosopher. He is considered today as the spiritual father of religious Zionism, breaking away from his ultra-Orthodox colleagues who were often opposed to the largely secular Zionist movement. Born in what is today Latvia, Rabbi Kook moved to Palestine in 1904 to take the post of the Chief Rabbi of Click to read moreClick on pictures to enlargeMark Twain in the Holy Land, 1867, and the Innocents Abroad
Are these Photographs of Mark Twain's Companions from The Innocents Abroad?
"The Pilgrims and the Sinners" in the Holy Land
Mark Twain was a relatively unknown writer in 1867 when he visited Palestine in the company of 64 "pilgrims and sinners" and wrote these words:
Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies.... Click to read moreCelebrating July 4th in the Holy Land 1918
The founders of the American Colony in Jerusalem in 1881 were proud of their American roots. The group of utopian, millennialist Christians were later joined by Swedish-American and Swedish believers.
The American Colony set up clinics, orphanages, cottage industries and soup kitchens for the poor of Jerusalem, earning favor with the Turkish rulers of Palestine. Click to read more
Why was an American flag flying on a Jerusalem steamroller 100 years ago?
The Library of Congress archives includes two photographs of a steam roller on the streets of Jerusalem.No explanation was given for the American flag; nor was a definitive date provided. Click to read moreU.S. Aid to the Jews of "Palestine" Was Essential 100 Years Ago
Click picture to enlarge During the first years of the 20th Century the Jewish population of Eretz Yisrael -- Palestine -- suffered terribly. A massive plague of locusts, famine and disease hit the community hard. Ottoman officials harassed, tortured, imprisoned and expelled Jews, especially "Zionist" activists.
An account of life in Palestine during the first world war was presented to the World Zionist Congress in 1921 by the London Zionist Click to read moreCongressional Visits to Israel Are Not New. Pictures of a Senate Delegation in 1936, a Critical Year
April 1936 was the start of a vicious anti-Semitic and violent "Arab Revolt" in Palestine that would last through 1939.
The murderous attacks against Jews, Jewish communities and Jewish property were widespread throughout Palestine. British government offices, banks and railroads were also attacked.
Coming so soon after the 1929 massacres of Jews in Palestine and under the looming shadow of the Nazi threat, the attacks against Palestine's Jews alarmed friends of the Zionist Click to read moreWhat Lincoln Would Have Seen in Jerusalem
Abraham Lincoln "said he wanted to visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the Saviour. He was saying there was no city he so much desired to see as Jerusalem," Mary Todd Lincoln told the Springfield, Ill. pastor who presided at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. She explained that the 16th president told her of his desire before he was fatally shot in Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865.
Truth or Mary Todd Lincoln's imagination? We can only Click to read more0Add a comment
- NOV14
The Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Old City, the Leading Sephardic Seminary Was Destroyed and Rebuilt
The original caption read: "Clearing of lower end of Tyropean Valley, near Dung Gate (1935)." The photo shows the
Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City before its destruction in 1948. The Porat Yosef Yeshiva is in the
center of the picture with the white dome. Today this area is the entrance way to the Western Wall plaza.
(Library of Congress, circa 1935, captions added by Israel Daily Picture)
Several ultra-Orthodox rabbinical seminaries in Israel can claim to be the leading Ashkenazic yeshiva-- the massive Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem with its 6,000 students, Ponevezh Yeshiva in B'nai Brak, or the Hevron Yeshiva in Jerusalem, once the famous Slabodka seminary in Europe which relocated to Hebron until the 1929 massacre of Jews there.
A puzzling picture from the Library of Congress collection showing
the "Temple area. Jerusalem. The Dome of the Rock and the western
Temple wall." Presumably the wide white lines are photographic
editor's tape. At the corner made by the tape is the Porat Yosef dome. The
Library of Congress dates the picture "between 1898 and 1946," but
Porat Yosef was not built until 1923. 1946 is the year the American
Colony Photographic Department closed.
But there are few challengers in the haredi Sephardic community to the pre-eminence of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem. The site for the seminary was purchased 100 years ago; the cornerstone was laid in 1914, and the building was inaugurated in 1923. The building contained study halls, a synagogue, classrooms and apartments.
It was all destroyed by the Jordanian army in 1948, along with all of the synagogues and homes in Jewish Quarter. The photos of the war in the Old City and the destruction of the Jewish Quarter were taken byLife Magazine's John Phillips.
After the 1967 war, the Porat Yosef seminary was rebuilt and overlooks the Western Wall Plaza.
The destruction of Porat Yosef Yeshiva (John Phillips, Life Magazine 1948) 0Add a comment
Book of Kings II, Chapter 7: ... Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate [of besieged Samaria]; and they said one to another: 'Why sit we here until we die? ... If we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Arameans...And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Arameans; and when they came to the outermost part of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no man there."
Lepers, presumably in Jerusalem, (Library of Congress, circa 1900)
For thousands of years the scourge of leprosy has struck fear among humanity. In the Bible it was considered a severe punishment. Leprosy was called a "living death," and its victims were often exiled from cities or imprisoned in leper colonies.
In the 19th century, Christian missionaries, well-versed in the Bible, saw lepers in the Holy Land as candidates for their holy mission, and photographers, perhaps seeing a commercial demand, viewed the lepers through the lenses of their cameras. The pictures here were taken by the photographers of the American Colony.
Group of leper women (circa 1900)
Today, scientists know that leprosy is caused by a bacteria and is rarely contagious, particularly if the patient is receiving treatment. It is transmitted by the transfer of body fluids and is treatable with antibiotics. While the disease has been "beaten back," it still exists in developing countries.
In 1887, Hansen’s Hospital, known as the “Lepers Home," was built on the then-remote outskirts of Jerusalem, according to writer Ruth Wexler. It was designed by the German architect Conrad Schick and operated by the Moravian Church.
"Hansen Hospital, an architectural treasure, is now situated in the midst of an affluent neighborhood," Wexler wrote. "During the 122 years of its existence around 600 people spent their lives within its walls. In the year 2000, the last leprosy in-patients moved out."
A group of leper men (circa 1900)
Despite medical advances, the leprosy stigma divided patients from society. Going against the norm was Rabbi Aryeh Levin (1885-1969), a revered Jerusalem rabbi.
Hansen's Hospital, across from the Jerusalem Theater.
(Judy Lash Balint, 2005)
"He was a frequent visitor at hospitals for lepers," Simcha Raz wrote in A Tzaddik in Our Time. "Reb Aryeh began this holy practice after he had found a woman weeping bitterly by the Western Wall. Reb Aryeh asked her, 'what made her cry so intensely.' She told him that her child had no cure, and was locked up in the leper hospital in Jerusalem. He immediately decided to visit the young child, and when he arrived all the patients burst into tears. It had been years since they had the privilege to see any visitor from the outside world."
Today, the hospital is undergoing renovation to become a cultural center and gallery for arts, media, design and technology.
Monday, August 10, 2015
On this Day, December 11, Gen. Edmund Allenby Entered Jerusalem after the British Rout of the Turkish-German Army in 1917. Re-posting an earlier feature
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