The American Colony

A highly readable narrative, which acknowledges the varying slants found in other histories.

Lagerlöf, Selma. Jerusalem. London: W. Heinemann, 1903. LC Call Number: PZ3.L136 J

A fictionalized account of the American Colony, which won its Swedish author the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909; also made into a movie with the same title in 1996.

Larsson, Edith. Dalafolk in the Holy Land. Stockholm: Naturoch Culture, 1957. (Published in Swedish, original manuscript in English in Helga Dudman Collection, Tiberias, Israel.) Not in Library of Congress

Recounts the history of the Colony from the viewpoint of the early Swedish settlers.

Larsson, Theo. Seven Passports for Palestine; Sixy Years in the Levant. Longfield, Sussex: Longfield Publishing Company, 1995. LC Call Number: BV4406.9 .L38 1995

Describes the origins of the Colony and its politics against the backdrop of the 20th-century struggle for Palestine, written by the son of photographer Lewis Larsson.

Matsson [sic], Eric Dinsmore. The American Colony of Jerusalem: A Brief Outline. LC Call Number: BV4406.9.M38 1992

Synopsis of events taken from Swedish sources by a nephew ofof Eric Matson, contains a list of Swedes who joined the Colony in three migrations and a bibliography.

Vester, Bertha Spafford. Our Jerusalem; an American Family in the Holy City, 1881-1949. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1950. LC Call Number: DS109 .V3

An account of the Colony by the daughter of its American founders.

Photographers

Gavish, Dov. "The American Colony and its Photographers." In Zev Vilnay's Jubilee Volume: Essays on the History, Archaeology, and Lore of the Holy Land, Presented to Zev Vilnay, ed. Ely Schiller, 127-144. Jerusalem: Ariel Publishing House, 1987. LC Call Number: DS102.4 .S46 1984 (Original in Hebrew; English translation in P&P Reference File)

Informative article detailing the history of the American Colony and its social and economic ventures and highlighting the careers of Lewis Larsson and Eric Matson.

Grønbæk, Jakob H. "The American Colony I Jerusalem og dens fotoatelier." In Bøger Biblioteker Mennesker et nordisk Festskrift tilegnet Torben Nielsen. Copenhagen: Det kongelige Bibliotek, 1988. (In Danish) LC Location: P&P Reference File

_________. "Lewis Larsson. A Swede in Jerusalem in the First Half of the Twentieth Century." In Living Waters: Scandinavian Orientalistic Studies Presented to Professor Dr. Frede Lokkegaard on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, January 27th 1990, eds. Egon Keck, Svend Sondergaard, Ellen Wulff, 75-87. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1990. LC Call Number: PJ3002.Z5 L56 1990

Larsson's participation in photography in the context of Swedish involvement in the Colony.

Gröndahl, Mia. The Dream of Jerusalem. Stockholm: Swedish Institute, n.d. LC Location: P&P Reference File

4-page illustrated brochure, which accompanied a collaborative project between the Consulate General of Sweden, the Swedish Institute, and the American Colony Hotel, contains new information about Lewis Larsson and the American Colony photographers.

Hassner, Rune. Eric G. Matson & the American Colony Photographers, Jerusalem. Stockholm: The Swedish Institute, 1990. (In Swedish.) LC Location: P&P Reference File

Catalog accompanying a 1990 exhibition in Sweden.

_________. "Eric Matson, Photographer in Jerusalem." Svensk fotografisk tidskrift (February 1976): 12-17. (In Swedish.) LC Location: P&P Reference File (English translation)

Based on information from Eric Matson.

Hummel, Ruth Victor. "Reality, Imagination, and Belief: Jerusalem in 19th and Early 20th Century Photographs (1839-1917)." In Ottoman Jerusalem, the Living City: 1517-1917, eds. Sylvia Auld and Robert Hillenbrand, 235-278. London: Altajir World of Islam Trust, 2000. LC Call Number: DS109.92 .O77 2000

Interpretive discussion about Western-trained photographers' views of Jerusalem.

Lind, Lars F. "Notes taken from Manuscript History of the American Colony in Jerusalem." Division of Prints and Photographs, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. (unpublished) LC Location: P&P Reference File

A short, but significant personal account by an early photographer in the Colony, includes some background about the Photo Department.

Matson, G. Eric. "Half a Century of Photography in the Bible Lands," 1969, typescript, source unknown. LC Location: P&P Reference File

5-page personal summation of his lifetime photographic activity.

_________. The Lord Is Our Shepherd. Chattanooga: Inspiration House, 1980. LC Call Number: BS1450 23d. M32 1980

Posthumous printing of Matson's hand colored photographic illustrations for the Twenty-third Psalm.

Nir, Yeshayahu. The Bible and the Image: The History of Photography in the Holy Land, 1839-1899. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. LC Call Number: TR113.I75 N57 1985

Good background about photography predating the Colony; Elijah Meyers, Lars (Lewis) Larsson, and American Colony photographers described on pages 253-258.

Safieh, Hanna. A Man and his Camera: Photographs of Palestine, 1927-1967. Jerusalem: Raffi Safieh, c.1999. LC Call Number: DS108.5 .S23 1999

Short essay by Issam Nassar about the Palestinian Arab who apprenticed with Eric Matson; contains many illustrations of Safieh's photographs.

Silver-Brody, Vivienne. Documentors of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel, 1890-1933. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1998. LC Call Number: TR113.I75 S55 1998

Contextualizes the American Colony Photo Department within the rich landscape of early Jewish photography.

The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection

The American Colony. 1914 Catalogue of Photographs Made by The American Colony, Jerusalem of Sites, Scenes, Ceremonies, Costumes, Characters, Paintings, Etc., of Bible Lands, including Jerusalem, Galilee, Damascus, Baalbeck, Petra, Sinai, etc. Jerusalem: The American Colony, 1914. LC Location: P&P Reference File

Catalogue listing, which documents the early stock of the American Colony Photo Department.

Hobart, George S. "The Matson Collection: A Half Century of Photography in
the Middle East." In A Century of Photographs, 1846-1946 Selected from the Collections of the Library of Congress, compiled by Renata V. Shaw, 109-129. Washington, DC: The Library of Congress, 1980. LC Call Number: TR6.U62 D572

Short narrative introducing the newly acquired Matson materials by the Library of Congress curator involved in its acquisition.

Matson, G. Eric. The Middle East in Pictures. 4 vols. With introduction by George S. Hobart. New York: Arno Press, 1980. LC Call Number: DS44.5 .M37 1980 fol.

Library of Congress curator George Hobart's short introductory texts to a visual catalogue comprised of photographic prints originally offered for sale by the Matson Photo Service, Jerusalem; images cropped from original negatives.

The Matson Photo Service. Photographic Catalogue of Bible Lands and Near East Countries Including East Africa. Jerusalem: The Matson Photo Service. [1936?]. LC Location: P&P Reference File

Catalog of photographs used by the Matsons in Jerusalem and California, organized by subject or place and indexed, except for East Africa section. Referred to in P&P catalog records as "Catalogue of photographs & lantern slides ... [1936?]"

The Matson Photo Service. [Matson Registers], photocopy of unpublished handwritten captions, 2 vols., 1934-1946. LC Location: P&P Collection File

Photographic logbook serving as the only source of captions for negatives from this period.