 |
"Exterior of Haram-Ash-Sharif,
Wailing place
of the Jews" by Peter Bergheim
(1865). The newly available photo allows
us to explore details usually not seen
Bergheim established a photographic
studio in the Christian Quarter. A
converted Jew, he was well aware of
Jerusalem's holy sites. |
A version of this article
appears in the Jerusalem Post Magazine today.The advent of ocean-going steamships and tourism
to the Holy Land and the development of photography all went hand-in-hand in the
latter half of the 19th century. Tourism encouraged photography and
photographs encouraged tourists, explained photography curator Kathleen Stewart Howe, author of The Photographic
Exploration of Palestine.
 |
Enlargement
shows memorial graffiti on
the
Western
Wall with the names “Eliyahu, Elka,
Sharf,
Shaul” The two figures may have
been
models;
indeed it is impossible to
tell if the
seated,
veiled and gloved individual
is a man
or
woman. |
While the first people to look at Palestine
through a lens were amateur photographers and missionaries in the 1840s, by the
1860s professional photographers began to visit holy sites and even establish
photo studios. Military explorers and surveyors often used the services of the
photographers.
 |
The "wall of
wailing" by Frank Mason Good. The Library of Congress dates the photo
as
published in 1881. The authoritative Palestine Exploration Fund records that it was
taken by
Good during his first trip to the Near East in 1866/67. Good's
panoramic
picture of Jerusalem appears as the title photo of this website
above. |
Among the tourists were Mark Twain and his
“Innocents Abroad” companions in 1867. His party stayed at the same Old
City Mediterranean Hotel as a British survey team headed by Lt. Charles
Warren.
The American Colony settlers who arrived in 1881
eventually established a tourist store inside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City
where they sold their photographs. They capitalized on the fierce demand for
pictures of the German emperor’s visit to Jerusalem in 1898.
 |
An enlargement shows an unusual
piece of furniture in the picture. Muslim rulers didn't allow
benches,
chairs, screens or other furniture.
On the stand appears to be a
lantern or even a Sephardi Torah case.
Is there a man next to it pressed
against the wall? Note the feet. |
The Library of Congress
archives contain not only the 22,000 photographs of Palestine by the American
Colony photographers, but also pictures dating back to the 1860s by pioneering
photographers Felix Bonfils, Peter Bergheim, Frank Good and others. The American
Colony pictures were donated to the Library of Congress and classified as
“public domain.” Photographs of the
Western Wall by the other photographers, some more than 130-year-old, were
available to researchers within the Library, but never “made public”
Online.
 |
"Wailing place
of the Jews, Solomon's Wall," Jerusalem. The
Library of Congress dates
the picture in the 1890s and doesn't
name the photographer. But the name
Bonfils can be seen in the
enlarged photo. Other similar photos in the Getty collection prove
that Frenchman
Felix Bonfils was the photographer and that the
picture was taken in 1869.
Bonfils died in 1885. |
In response to our recent inquiries, the head of
the Photo Research Division explained, “Our legal counsel has asked us to allow
130 years to elapse before displaying larger images outside Library of Congress.
Based on the available information, I was able … to display outside Library of
Congress buildings for some of the images you mention.”
These photographs are presented here and
are now available to the public Online. The old glass plate photographic technique,
rather than paper and film, provides viewers with an amazing enlargement
capability.
 |
| Enlargements from Bonfils
photo |
Click on pictures to
enlarge.
Click on captions to view the
Library of Congress originals with the option to use "Tiff"
enlargement.
In viewing these
145-year-old pictures, bear in mind that these are not the spontaneous snapshots
of today. The pictures required long exposures and extensive set-up, Stewart
Howe explained. Often the subjects were models dressed to play the role.
That was apparently the
case of the seven “Ashkenazi Jews”
photographed at the Mediterranean Hotel in the Old City in 1867 by a member of
Lt. Charles Warren’s expedition team.
 |
| Enlargement of the
worshippers |
This
collection of 19th century photographs presents a portrait of Jerusalem's Jewish
community, a pious population who gathered at the retaining wall of Judaism's
most sacred site. According to the 1871 visitor to Jerusalem
William Seward, the American Secretary of State under Abraham
Lincoln, the Jews comprised half of the city's population, the Muslims
one-quarter, and the Christians and Armenians the remainder.
