The World's Largest Public Domain Media Search Engine
Diary in photos, vol. I, 1934-1935

Similar

Diary in photos, vol. I, 1934-1935

description

Summary

Photographs show John D. Whiting's trips around the Middle East region in 1934 and 1935. Whiting, a member of the American Colony in Jerusalem, worked as a tour guide, businessman, writer, and photographer. Photographs include locations in Palestine (present-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip), Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. People depicted include John D. Whiting, his wife Grace, and sons David and Edmund (Wilson); Horatio, Jock, Louise, Freda Vester, and Anna Grace (Vester) Lind; Deputy District Governor of Beersheba ʻĀrif ʻĀrif, Emir Abdullah of Transjordan, Bedouin Sheik Majid, and travelers and visitors to the region. Also shown are the Jerusalem municipal elections of September 1935, Bedouin camps, views of Jerusalem, and the visit to Jerusalem by a Saudi prince.
Album page image number 1 to 24 (p. 1-24): Photographs from Part I, February to September 1934 including: camel trip to the Arabah Valley by invitation of ʻĀrif ʻĀrif, Deputy District Governor of Beersheba; laying water pipes in Jerusalem, trip with John Dinsmore to Rafa'a for iris; women in Bethlehem, picking flowers at Camp Adonis, near Tiberias; Jerash (Gerasa), David and Grace Whiting in the courtyard of the American Colony, the Anna Spafford Baby Home, the airplane "Hanno" landing at Ludd (Lod), the Adwan Lozi camp near Suweilih (Suwaylih, Jordan), a dog "Barak," (Edmund) Wilson Whiting sculpting a "Hagin" (camel), Sheik Majid's camp near Suweilih, and municipal elections, Jerusalem.
Album page image number 25 to 40 (p. 25-40): Photographs from Part I, September to November 1934 including: trip to the Bedu Camp at Deir el Belah (Dayr al Belah, Gaza Strip); police sports on Mt. Scopus, trip to Petra (Jordan), Akaba (Aqabah), a Byzantine church at Mt. Nebo, trip to Shalaal, the wedding of Emir Talal (son of Emir Abdullah) at Amman, Gypsy (Romani) girl dancing at the wedding, a camel turning a mill to make sesame oil, picnic at Nebi Musa, and a Tomb at Er Rahi.
Album page image number 41 to 67 (p. 43-65): Photographs from Part II, January to June 1935 including: Christmas tree in American Colony courtyard, trip to Petra with author Mrs. Fisher (Violet Cressy-Marcks) and the Beaumonts, floods in Jordan, trip from Cairo to Petra including aerial views, trip to Jerash (Gerasa), quarry men at Nazareth, the Palestine Electric Corporation (Rutenburg Plant), Ba'albek (Ba'labakk), celebration for King George V's Jubilee, and trip to Syria with wife and daughter of architect Charles Robert Ashbee.
Album page image number 68 to 88 (p. 66-90): Photographs from Part II, July to December 1935 including: reaper harvester at Esdraelon, Horatio (Spafford?) and David Whiting hunting at Gabir Effendi, visit of Saudi prince to Palestine and Jordan with review of Arab army, picnic at Krimzan (Dayr Krimzan, West Bank), bird's-eye view of Christian and Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem (including the Hurva and Nisan Bak synagogues), trip to "Mikmash valley" (Michmash, Israel), trip to Cappadocia and Ankara, Turkey; and trip to Petra including Adwan camp at Shuneh.
Arrangement: Photographs arranged chronologically.
LOT title from album and caption list.
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: Photos, Vol. I. 1934-1935, Whiting.
Album unpaginated, album page numbers supplied by Library staff. Pages 1-4, 45, 46, 95 and 96 are blank.
Captions for photographs found in list: Diary in photos, Jerusalem, 1934-1935, 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-2006:051:36).

American Colony, a non-denominational utopian Christian community was founded by a small group of American expatriates in Ottoman Palestine in 1881. The collection is a gift to the Library of Congress from the board of directors of the American Colony of Jerusalem, Ltd., which is made up of American, British, and Swedish descendants of the early colonists. The materials in the collection were initially retained by Bertha Vester in connection with her writing of the memoir Our Jerusalem (1950), and later by her daughter-in-law Valentine Vester and others at the American Colony Hotel. The collection focuses on the personal and business life of the colony from the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, through World War I and the British Mandate, and into the formation of the state of Israel. The bulk of the materials dates from 1870 to 1968 and relates to the leadership of the colony by members of the Spafford, Vester, and Whiting families. Photographs show members of the American Colony, a Christian community in Jerusalem founded by immigrants from the United States and Sweden. Includes photographs of American Colony leader Anna Spafford, her daughters Bertha (Spafford) Vester and Grace (Spafford) Whiting, Frederick Vester (husband of Bertha), John D. Whiting (husband of Grace), and her grandchildren (Anna Grace, Horatio, Tanetta and John (Jock) Vester, and Spafford and David (Whiting). Primarily portraits and photographs of the grandchildren as they take part in various activities, such as playing at the beach, participating in a July 4th pageant, having tea, celebrating first birthday, riding on a donkey, playing musical instruments, playing in garden and snow. Also includes a photograph of the American Colony store with Frederick Vester. Album page image number 1-12 (inside front cover-p. 11) Photographs include: a family portrait of Whiting and Vester families: Standing left to right: Jacob Spafford, Grace and John Whiting, Frederick and Anna Grace Vester; seated: Anna Spafford holding John (Jock) Vester?, Horatio Vester, Bertha Vester holding unidentified baby; floor: Tenetta Vester, Spafford and David Whiting. Grace Whiting holding Spafford, Anna Spafford holding David?; Jock and David in baby carriage, baby and toddler portraits, child playing outside with nurse, Spafford? celebrating first birthday, July 22, 1911; donkey ride, tea time, July 22, 1912; Spafford playing in leaves, feeding a horse and playing with water faucet, July 1911; family outing, portrait of Vester children, bath time for Spafford, and Vester children playing at the beach. Album page image number 13-26 (p. 12-25) Photographs include: Whiting family portrait (Grace, Spafford, John D.) 1911, Vester family portrait (Frederick, Anna Grace, Bertha), Bertha with Anna Grace on her back, Vester children playing in the garden and playing musical instruments with friends, Jock Vester and David Whiting feeding a turkey, Spafford Whiting in a baby carriage, Vester children pose with friends, Yates family, great grandmother Mary Whiting holding Spafford, children playing in the snow, Jacob Spafford? with child, Granny Hornstein, Selim Barakat, Vester children with Spafford, children with umbrellas, children on sled, woman and little girl standing outside, Anna Grace sitting with Tanetta and Horatio?, girls playing with dog, July 4th pageant (little boys lined up holding toy rifles), American Colony store with Frederick Vester standing out front, unidentified child with Spafford? and David? sitting in the grass, unidentified woman in Arab dress holding a child, Grace Whiting having tea with women, John D. Whiting and child riding on a donkey, David playing with plants, Whiting and Vester families at Ein Karem, David Whiting, and Spafford Whiting playing with hammer and wooden crates.

date_range

Date

01/01/1934
person

Contributors

Whiting, John D. (John David), 1882-1951, photographer
Matson, G. Eric (Gästgifvar Eric), 1888-1977, photographer
create

Source

Library of Congress
copyright

Copyright info

No known restrictions on publication.

Explore more

arif arif
arif arif