American Colony, Jerusalem

Common card · No. 469246

The American religious foundation and philanthropy that informally became known as the American Colony of Jerusalem, was established in the Ottoman Empire in 1881 as a "Christian utopian society" led by American religious leader Horatio Gates Spafford and his Norwegian wife Anne Tobine Larsen Øglende. Largely concerned with providing social services, education, meeting spaces, and medical care, it became known for producing and publishing a series of documentary photographs of the area of Jerusalem, starting in the early 1900s. The community lasted until the 1950s. The colony is known today mainly for the American Colony Hotel that exists in the place where the colony was located.

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