19th and early 20th century photographs from the Holy Land

Updates to Previous Posts
with Pictures from the New York Public Library. Yes, the NYPL

 

"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.



Turkish soldiers marching on Nablus
Road past the same minaret
(circa 1900)

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.

Peasant plowing (circa 1900)
Credit: New York Public Library

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)

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