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An old photo of a castle on a hill. Photographs of Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria

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An old photo of a castle on a hill. Photographs of Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria

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Summary

Photographs show John D. Whiting's trips in Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey in the 1930s. Whiting, a member of the American Colony in Jerusalem worked as a tour guide, businessman, writer and photographer.
Album page image number 1-21 (p. 1-23) Photographs include: Crusader church (Beirut), people at picnic table, men burning thorns, cemetery of the Meidan (Damascus), village of Breije between Damascus and Homs, mosque (Homs, Syria), view of Hama from castle hill, double waterwheel (Hama, Syria), man with horse, Krak de Chevaliers, Syria (courtyard inner ward, entrance to refectory, undercroft, corner tower, outer wall, general and distant view, Grace Whiting and Geo Asfar sitting in window), sacred fish shrine (Tripoli, Lebanon), tower ruins, and Isle de Rouad, Tartosa (Tartous) cathedral and Margab castle in Syria.
Album page image number 22-37 (p. 21-39) Photographs include: castle tunnels, man and donkey grinding?, boats in Latakia Harbor, Antioch and Mt. Silpius from the west, woodworker, laurel tree and waterfalls at Daphne and streets at Antioch, Turkey; cedars in Lebanon, Miss Clement sketching in cedar grove, mountains, valley, cliffs, coast road at Ras Esh Shekka (Lebanon), ruins of Jebeil (Biblos, Lebanon), sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Biblos, and obsidian coffer bound in gold.
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 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
LOT title devised by Library staff.
Album unpaginated, album page numbers supplied by Library staff.
Some photographs printed from negatives taken earlier (ca. 1900 to 1920) by the American Colony Photo Department.
Photographs in album uncaptioned. Captions based on similar images in the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection and in LOTs 13837, 13839, and13853.
Album similar in format to "Diary in Photos" albums (LOT 13836, LOTs 13839-13842).
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.
Transfer; LC Manuscript Division; 2006; (DLC/PP-2006:051:40).

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.

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

01/01/1930
person

Contributors

Whiting, John D. (John David), 1882-1951, photographer
place

Location

Beirut (Lebanon)33.87194, 35.50972
Google Map of 33.871944444444445, 35.50972222222222
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Source

Library of Congress
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No known restrictions on publication.

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