Scope and Contents
This collection documents, through lantern slides, slides, prints and negatives, life in Jerusalem, Damascus, Cairo, and other locations in the Middle East. The majority of the photographs were created and assembled by Stephen Haboush, although some were purchased. Haboush routinely traveled to his birthplace of Israel and he photographed his travels. He then used the photographs for lectures about his life as a shepherd and experiences in the Holy Land.
There is a specific emphasis on the activity of shepherding, but there are photographs depicting generally landscapes, flora, the Wailing Wall, pottery, sunsets, buildings, altars, churches, mosques, rock formations, boats on the river, camels, market scenes, donkeys, villages, tilework, streetscapes, maps of Egypt and Palestine, and individuals--shepherds, British soldiers, and women at a well.
The collections consists primarily of lantern slides which are loosely organized. Lantern slides are positive images on glass and the exterior glass. Lantern slides were intended to be projected for viewing and were a popular entertainment medium in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Small groupings of slides and photographs were identified, but there is little arrangement and identification of the materials. Some of the materials are identified and numbered, and when this was possible, these materials were grouped together. Many of the numbered groups of slides have great gaps. Some of the miscellaneous slides have been grouped and briefly identified, for example, "British Soldiers."