Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) - David Street in the Old City of Jerusalem

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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David Street, inside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. The picture appears to have been taken prior to 1898 when the moat on the right was filled in and the road widened to allow entry of the German emperor.   (Credit: Keystone-Mast Collection, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock, University of California, Riverside) Traffic jam on the expanded David Street in 1898 (Credit: Library of Congress) Welcome to David Street just inside the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's Old City. Like today, it was a center for tourism over 100 years ago which explains the hotels, the signs in English, the sale of photographs, and a tourist office. No date is provided for the picture in the UCR files, but looking at another picture probably taken during the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1898, this scene predates the visit. We found one of the photographs on sale of particular interest. (See the bottom left of the photo at the top.)  We've seen that picture before -- in the Library of Congress collection.   Photographs for sale in the 1890s.  Jew of Jerusalem The Library of Congress dates the picture as being taken between 1900 and 1910. It was  almost certainly taken in the 19th century, however. A sign on the street advertises "Bonfils," one of the leading photographers in the Near East at the end of the 19th century. Many of his pictures appear in Israel Daily Picture. Photographs for sale to tourists The Keystone collection photo from UCR also shows a prominent sign for the Cook's World Ticket Office, the leading travel agency for tourists and pilgrims to Palestine and Syria in the 19th century.  The bottom sign offers guides and camp equipment. For more information on Cook's role in investment and development of tourism in Jerusalem and Jaffa, read Ruth Kark's From Pilgrimage to Budding Tourism: The role of Thomas Cook in the rediscovery of the Holy Land in the 19th Century. Strangely, Cook's signs cannot be seen in the photograph of the German emperor's arrival. Cook had supplied dozens of large tents for the emperor's entourage, but the signs were covered over. The name "Assad C. Kayat" appears on a sign in the UCR photo.  Ruth Kark's book on Sephardi Entrepreneurs in Jerusalem shows a 1903 check from the Jewish banker, Jacob Valero, to Kayat, but we have not discovered his profession or why he hung a sign in the Old City.

Snow in Jerusalem -- Pictures We Presented in Winters Past - Israel's History - a Picture a Day

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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Snow in Jerusalem -- Pictures We Presented in Winters Past Posted: 12 Dec 2013 12:34 AM PST Jerusalem under blanket of snow. View from the Christian Quarter showing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount and Mt. of Olives. (circa 1900) Strong rain, winds and snow storms are hitting the Middle East this week.  And snow is falling today in Jerusalem, the Golan and parts of the Galilee.  British soldiers at the Western Wall (1921) We present here old pictures of snow in Jerusalem from the Library of Congress collection.    Children of the "American Colony" (1921). These pictures were hand-colored and found in a Colony family album. Children of the "American Colony" playing in the snow (1921)  "Snow-balling" on Jaffa Road in Jerusalem (1942)  Australian soldiers and Arabs "snow-balling" (1942)

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 Posted: 11 Dec 2013  Allenby entering Jerusalem December 11, 1917 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.    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.    General Allenby walking through the Jaffa Gate into the Old City of Jerusalem.  Click HERE to view the video According to the Imperial War Museum synopsis accompanying the film: 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..

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The Church of Ireland Library's 115-Year-Old Photographic Treasure - photos of Jerusalem

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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Part 2: The Church of Ireland Library's 115-Year-Old Photographic Treasure Posted: 11 Dec 2013  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).  We present here Part 2 from the Church of Ireland Library's photographic collection of pictures taken by David Brown in 1897.  View Part 1 HERE 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 receive www.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) 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) Responsible Archivists Preserve Their Photographic Treasures

19th Century Photos of Jerusalem Now Digitized by New York Public Library

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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19th Century Photos of Jerusalem Now Digitized  by New York Public Library Posted: 03 Dec 2013  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 Treasures

Century-Old Photos Revealed by Oregon State University, Part 1. The Collection Includes an Interesting Historical Commentary

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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Century-Old Photos Revealed by Oregon State University, Part 1. The Collection Includes an Interesting Historical Commentary Posted: 27 Nov 2013 11:07 PM PST 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.  Tiberias (circa 1910, Oregon State University Archives) 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." 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."  The Jews' Wailing Place- Outer Wall of Temple  (circa 1910,  Oregon State University Archives) "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 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     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 here

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta) - Walls & Gates of Jerusalem

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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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 enlarge The 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.  Damascus Gate   (Chatham University Archives) View other historical (black and white) pictures of the Damascus Gate at our previous posting. 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. Lions Gate, also known as St. Stephen's Gate (Chatham University Archives) 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.  The sealed Sha'ar Harachamim, or the Golden Gate, taken from Gethsemane Garden   (Chatham University Archives) See our previous feature on  Sha'ar Harachamim and the graves  beneath it here.

Jerusalem, Holy to All Religions. Responsible Archivists Are Digitizing their Vintage Pictures

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)

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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.  Map of Jerusalem (Chatham University Archives, circa 1895). Note the "Railroad Station" on the bottom left (in the photo below). The Jerusalem Train Station was completed in 1892. The Chatham collection also contains a map of Jerusalem.  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. (Love For His People Editor's Note: I was inside the rock in 1989, when we were allowed. It is believed to be the rock on Mount Moriah where Abraham was to offer up his son Issac. Steve Martin) Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Chatham University Archives, circa 1890) (Love For His People Editor's Note: Notice the ladder on the 2nd floor above. It is still there! (as of Nov. 10, 2013 when we were last in Jerusalem.) It has now been there for 400 years we are told when we visit here.) 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)