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Tourism and Souvenirs in Nineteenth-Century Palestine

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Tourism and Souvenirs in Nineteenth-Century Palestine Palestine in the Nineteenth Century Tourism and Souvenirs in Nineteenth-Century Palestine n a visit to a museum in Athens, I remember seeing a proskynetarion, an icon of sorts, that mapped the Holy Land and its various important By Sary Zananiri Biblical events. Proskynetaria fall somewhere between souvenirs and religious objects that were produced as late as the early twentieth century Multinational presence at Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, in 1898. and bought by ChristianO pilgrims who came to Jerusalem and wanted to take a representation of the Holy The traditional religious pilgrimages Proskynetaria Land back to their home countries. to see the holy sites had obvious Proskynetaria often had a note on historical importance, but with the back certifying that an individual the beginning of the Ottoman had undertaken such a pilgrimage. Empire’s Tanzimat Reforms in This particular proskynetarion was 1839, Palestine’s landscape shifted painted in 1839, the same year that dramatically. Among other things, the photography was invented. reforms enabled foreign ownership While Palestine, with all its religious of land. This reality, coupled with a connotations, had always had a growing appetite for modern tourism, significant history of pilgrimage, precipitated the emergence of the nineteenth century was a many institutions during the second transformative period. Enabled half of the nineteenth century, by modern advancement, from accommodating the desires of the transport technologies – such as modern tourist. ships and trains – to the advent From nationally run religious of photography and print-media institutions that facilitated pilgrimage, industries that broadcast images such as the Russian Compound, of the Holy Land far and wide, the Notre Dame de France, and the nineteenth century saw the birth of Austrian Hospice, to antiquities the modern tourism industry as we and souvenir stores such as the know it today. Boulos Meo Store and the American 32 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 33 Palestine in the Nineteenth Century To gain a sense of the materials that bottles embossed with the Crusader were sold, we might look to Lars cross, pebbles from Galilee with Lind, a member of the American crosses painted on, pressed flowers Colony. Later in life he wrote in his on cards, bits of incense and memoirs of the Russian pilgrims small artifacts blessed at the Holy who travelled to Palestine in the late Sepulchre and spina Christi thorn Ottoman period, before the Russian plants in dried up balls. This hardy revolution of 1917 disrupted what thorn looked like fingers bunched had been one of the largest tourist together in the hand, but when put demographics. He described their in water opened out into a sizeable experience of the city: plant. [P]ilgrims were first taken to the This description gives us an insight Church of the Holy Sepulchre and into the world of objects produced Golgotha. As they emerged from in Palestine, but also a sense of just Jesse Lyman Hurlbut Collection, Palestine through the Stereoscope. the eastern gate alongside what one of the many global distribution Photo courtesy of Yasser Barakat Gallery. was the Municipal Garden, both points. To consider souvenir culture sides of the narrow street were in Palestine, we must think about an lined with small shops and booths intricate set of networks that range catering to the pilgrim trade. They from the artisans who made them to Colony’s Vester and Co., both at industry, we can begin to understand were stocked with crosses and the merchants who sold them and Jaffa Gate, cities like Jerusalem the number of goods that were rosaries in olive wood and mother- the tourists who would buy them, changed rapidly during the second produced as souvenirs to address of-pearl, crucifixes, bright lithograph taking them to their countries of half of the century. Added to this the demands of the market, quietly pictures of Bible scenes along with origin. When we think of the spread were travel agencies and tour groups distributing Palestinian cultural likenesses of the [Russian] Czar of such objects, their reach was run by foreigners and locals alike, materials across the globe in ways and Czarina, Jordan water in flat global. such as Thomas Cook and the Awad that often go unnoticed. Travel Agency. These institutions The market for Holy Land souvenirs and many others showed both local Henry Selous’s view of Jerusalem in 1860. It is considered one of the included a diversity of industries largest engraving of Jerusalem. Image courtesy of Yasser Barakat Gallery. and foreign interest in Palestine, from icon painting, both religious but perhaps most importantly, and and commercial, to ancient often overlooked, is the series of industries, such as mother-of-pearl cultural materials produced either as and olive wood carving that were artworks or souvenirs that met the reinvigorated, to items drawn from Western appetite for the Holy Land. the physicality of the landscape Indeed, as early as the 1850s, itself, such as rocks painted with Louis Félicien Caignart de Saulcy, crosses or pressed flowers glued to a French gentleman and amateur pages of booklets. With the advent archaeologist, would discuss the of photography, new images of the natural majesty of the Dead Sea and Holy Land were added, especially the Jordan Valley, positioning its postcards, as local photographic authenticity against the modernity studios came to be established of Jerusalem and the many tourists through Armenian networks from the who constantly flocked to visit its 1860s onwards. holy sites. Such materials, both secular and Alongside the significant industry religious, form a corpus that hints at that facilitated Western visitation was how Palestinians marketed Palestine another that catered to visitors once to tourists as well as offer insight they had arrived. When we consider into the ways that visitors perceived the size of the Palestinian tourist Palestine in the nineteenth century. 34 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 35 Palestine in the Nineteenth Century and merchants with their Western social life. In many ways, the rift clientele in which the land was made between marketing an ancient land fundamental. and the modern technologies that Perhaps one of the most enduring enabled such marketing, as well legacies of the nineteenth-century as tourism itself, shows just how souvenir market was the image modern the conception of Palestine’s of Palestine itself. The market for ancientness is. Biblical and Orientalist images Along with photography, a more spurred an entire photographic reliable global postage system genre that supported a significant produced the postcard. For those ecosystem of photographic studios. who could not visit Palestine, Such photos of course built on the photography, and postcards in earlier painting and printing traditions particular, enabled viewers at least of such artists as David Roberts, but a version of a Palestine visit. Some the new photographic industry also of the earliest postcards in Palestine made photography accessible to were produced by Boulos Meo and Palestinian communities themselves. sold through his store, a Jerusalem This produced a paradox. Typical landmark at Jaffa Gate. Biblical images, on the one hand, Speaking to Rami Meo, the great- may have problematically enabled grandson of Boulos Meo, who ran the imagining of an empty and the store in the 1980s and 1990s, ancient land or one filled with Biblical gives us some insight into how characters. On the other, for local strongly the nineteenth-century communities, photographers also image of Palestine was ingrained documented Palestine’s modern in the touristic imagination. Meo Nativity scene made of mother-of-pearl. One of the most prolific industries These enterprising merchants and was mother-of-pearl carving. Indeed, artisans were well aware of the during the course of the nineteenth cachet held by goods produced in century, Bethlehem-carved mother- Palestine. They actively marketed of-pearl was so popular that their production in the Holy Land as Palestinian trading posts were set up part of the allure of ornately carved in Manchester, Paris, Kiev, Manila, mother-of-pearl both locally and Singapore, and Port-au-Prince. abroad. Indeed, the Boulos Meo These trading outposts sold carvings Store’s receipt book made explicit made in Palestine and also sourced reference to the sale of carved Souvenirs from Palestine in raw materials for new production. mother-of-pearl and olive wood. the nineteenth century include This led to much innovation with pressed flowers and olive Similarly, the painted rocks, pressed wood. the addition of new pearl-shell flowers, and vials of Jordan River colors. Looking at changing styles of water were valued precisely because carving, we also see evidence that they were fruits of the landscape artisans addressed different markets itself. While often religious in nature, in different ways. This image shows when we examine the visual culture an Italian rendering of Leonardo da of souvenirs, it becomes apparent Vinci’s Last Supper in the material that there was an interesting meeting so strongly associated with the of Palestinian souvenir makers Palestinian industry. 36 THIS WEEK IN PALESTINE 37 Palestine in the Nineteenth Century recalls going on buying trips to London to purchase British-authored books and images of Palestine, particularly those of David Roberts, which he would then sell to tourists visiting from abroad at the shop in Jerusalem. The desire of more recent tourists to find a souvenir that reflects their expectations of the romanticized Biblical Holy Land of the nineteenth century persists to this day. In such instances, “authentic” souvenirs become a mirror that not only presents tourists with what they expected, but that also shows the ongoing ingenuity of contemporary merchants and the reciprocal interaction between trader and tourist that the tourism industry continues to offer. Only when we begin to map the various souvenirs and cultural goods produced for the tourism market can we understand the important reach of the industry in the nineteenth century as it marketed Palestine abroad.
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