 |
"Shepherd and sheep." Where? South on Nablus Road in Jerusalem
(circa 1900)
The mosque and minaret are still there today. Credit: New
York Public Library |
The Library of
Congress archives of 19th and early 20th century photographs from the
Holy Land still has more veins of treasures to be mined by
Israel Daily
Picture.
But we would like to add two more American Colony
pictures which we found in the New York Public Library archives to our previous
postings. We thank the NYPL for granting permission to present them
here.
The
first is a picture of shepherds and sheep. What drew our attention were the
buildings and mosque, easily identified in our feature "
Jerusalem's Nablus Road -- Where History Marched." The
original caption to the photograph of the soldiers notes that they were passing
the American Colony residence, located on Nablus Road.
 |
Emperor Wilhelm passing the Colony's
residence. Note the
minaret above the
ultra-Orthodox Jew's hat on the
left.
(1898) |
The Colony's location gave the
photographers a front row seat for the arrival of the German Emperor Wilhelm
II in 1898.
The second photo found in the New York
Public Library is a picture of farming practices in Palestine over 100 years
ago. The American Colony photographers frequently shot pictures of mismatched
plowing animals.
We theorize that the
American Colony members, who were well versed in the Old Testament,
focused on agricultural prohibitions found in the Bible.
In this particular case, they illustrated the prohibition "Thou shall
not plow with
an ox and an ass together." (
Deuteronomy
20)
They also provided pictures of the prohibition "Thou
shall not
muzzle an ox in its
threshing"
(Deuteronomy 25)
.JPG)
