Some 19th Century Photographers in Syria,Palestine and Egypt

Abstract

By the middle of the 19th century, tourist travel in the Eastern Mediterranean had become quite common. Thus, in April 1835, The Missionary Herald reports: 'The Delaware line-of-battle ship and the schooner Shark, the former being the flag of commodore Patterson, arrived at Beyroot on the 29th of August. The commodore's lady and three daughters were with him. 'The ships had previously anchored at Joppa, while all the officers but one, and the commodore's family, in two successive companies, went up to Jerusalem. A number of the sailors, also, took that opportunity to visit the Holy City, the zeal of some leading them to travel the whole distance on foot. Such a number of Franks had rarely arrived there in company since the time of the crusades. In the commodore's party, seventy-three Americans entered the gates of Jerusalem together’¹. This may well be one of the earliest accounts of a group tour to the Middle East.