Photo-Album – Gabriel and Abraham Dabdoub / American Colony, 19th century

Photographs of the Holy-Land / Photographies de Terre-Sainte / Photographien aus dem Hl. Lande, Gabriel et Abraham Dabdoub, Bethléem-Jérusalem. [Eretz Israel, between 1890 and 1900].
Photo-album in an olive-wood binding, opens from left to right. On front cover a Franciscan cross is embossed and on the back cover "Jerusalem" is printed. On the spine: "Album de Photographies". 36 photos of sites in Jerusalem and Eretz Israel are included in the album, most of them by "American Colony" and signed in the plate "American Colony Jerusalem" (from the early days of the photography department of the American Colony). The photos are annotated in the plate in English and French only: annotations in German were added by hand, on the borders. In the JNUL collection there is a similar album (Ya'akov Werman archive, ARC. 4* 1858 2.1 60), and they note that the album belonged to the library of a Carmelite monastery in Germany and was, most probably, ordered for educational purposes, through the Dabdoub brothers in Jerusalem; supposedly the album was sold to tourists and pilgrims as a souvenir. Total of 36 photos 11X15 cm. Photos – in good condition. Damages to two photos. Staining to leaves. Several leaves were probably removed from the album.