Collection Items
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Web PageRelated Resources Bibliography G. Eric and Edith Matson Negatives www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/matpc/bibliography.html Library of Congress Resources Electronic John D. Whiting Papers hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms008123 G. Eric and Edith Matson Papers hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms010210 Visual materials from the papers of John D. Whiting www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008676355/ Visual Materials from the American Colony in Jerusalem Collection lccn.loc.gov/2010646709 G. Eric and Edith Matson Negatives www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/matpc/ Geography and Map Division of the Library
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Web PageRights and Access The Library of Congress has reviewed the copyright status of the documents presented from collection and is not aware of any U.S. copyright or any other restrictions in the documents. However, some of the content may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and/or by the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations. Additionally, the reproduction of some materials may be...
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ArticleArticles and Essays Top of page Skip to main content Library of Congress Search Everything Audio Recordings Books/Printed Material Films, Videos Legislation Manuscripts/Mixed Material Maps Notated Music Newspapers Periodicals Personal Narratives Photos, Prints, Drawings Software, E-Resources Web Archives
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ArticleA Community in Jerusalem The story of the American Colony in Jerusalem begins with Anna and Horatio Spafford of Lake View, Illinois, and the involvement of their family in the 1873 shipwreck of the luxury steamer, the Ville du Havre. The majority of passengers traveling aboard the Ville du Havre lost their lives in that catastrophe in the mid-Atlantic. Among the drowned were the Spaffords' four young daughters.
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ArticleChicago Foreground Soon after he came to Chicago from Troy, New York, in 1856 to practice law, Horatio Gates Spafford became an intimate part of a circle of evangelical Protestants who centered around his friend, the influential revivalist Dwight L. Moody. He and Moody met in programs at the Young Men’s Christian Association in midtown Chicago, where Horatio availed himself of the advantages of the library,...
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ArticleEnterprise and Social Service The Vester and Co.-American Colony Store was just one of the enterprises operated by members of the American Colony that had a significant impact in Jerusalem. In its first five decades of existence, the American Colony developed important auxiliary functions in the realms of commercial photography, business, and medical and social services.
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ArticleJerusalem The travelers from America took up residence in a house on the Old City wall, located in the Muslim Quarter, between Herod's Gate and Damascus Gate. Among them were regulars from the house meetings at the Spafford's home in Lake View. There was Mary and John C. Whiting, and their small daughter Ruth; Amelia "Elizabeth" Gould, a well-to-do widow; William Rudy, a business man...
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ArticleModern Times As time progressed, many colonists distanced themselves from the colony’s more overtly religious origins. Death or disappointment surprised some of the most pious members, and original founders aged into secondary roles. Many who had grown up as children within the colony left to seek education or work abroad, or preferred a different kind of life as adults. Several younger members who remained became engaged...
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ArticleSaved Alone On a clear night in November 1873, days into a trans-Atlantic voyage, the Ville du Havre was inexplicably rammed at sea by a passing vessel, the Loch Earn. Among the passengers who were startled from their sleep were Anna Spafford and her children. They were on their way to Europe with family friends. Horatio Spafford had stayed temporarily behind in Chicago to see to...
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ArticleThe Pasha's Palace The arrival of the large influx of Swedish members in the spring and summer of 1896 meant that the colony had outgrown their original living quarters in the house on the Old City wall. The colony retained the Old City building. It would become home to a photography laboratory and sewing rooms, and be used as a school and eventually as a baby home,...
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ArticleThe Swedes In the decade of the 1890s, the colony grew more ethnically diverse and attracted new members locally and through immigration. The colony as a whole expanded in membership and in economic self-sufficiency. By the turn of the century, the colony essentially functioned as a settlement house and as a hostel for foreign and regional travelers.
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ArticleTransitions While accepted and admired in many quarters of the city, the colony was not without its detractors. American consuls with more conservative religious beliefs served as long-term critics of the colony’s less-than-traditional organizational structure and practices. They were, in effect, diplomatic thorns in the side of the colony, clashing over issues as disparate as custody rights and cemetery usage. Some leaders of foreign missionary...
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ArticleAmerican Colony in Jerusalem Timeline, 1828-1980 Top of page Skip to main content Library of Congress Search Everything Audio Recordings Books/Printed Material Films, Videos Legislation Manuscripts/Mixed Material Maps Notated Music Newspapers Periodicals Personal Narratives Photos, Prints, Drawings Software, E-Resources Web Archives
- Date: 1828
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Article1828 to 1873 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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Article1873 to 1881 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative;
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Article1881 to 1896 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative; /* rule
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Article1896 to 1915 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative; /* rule
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Article1916 to 1930 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative; /* rule
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Article1930 to 1980 /* example: http://localhost:8000/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/ */ .timeline-title { margin: 0; background: #F6F6F6; text-align: center; height: 30px; line-height: 30px; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; font-size: 16px; top: 0; left: 0; } .timeline-new { padding-left: 0; list-style: none; height: 100%; padding-left: 200px; margin-bottom: 2rem; padding-top: 3.5rem; position: relative; /* rule
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ArticleThe Bertha Vester Diaries By the first part of the 1900s, first-generation founders of the American Colony in Jerusalem had passed away or grown elderly. Esteemed matriarch Anna Spafford continued to offer inspiration to followers, but she focused primarily on religious guidance of the polyglot American Colony community of Americans, local converts, and Swedes. Second-generation members who had come to Jerusalem with their parents as children or teenagers,...
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ArticleThe Locust Plague of 1915 Photograph Album Witnesses to the locust invasion that befell Jerusalem and the nearby Syrian region in 1915 agreed that they had seen nothing to equal it in their life-times. It was truly a natural disaster of biblical proportions.
- Date: 1915