Capturing the Holy Land: M. J. Diness and the Beginnings of Photography in Jerusalem

By chance, photographer John Barnier came across eight dusty wooden boxes containing 134 glass plate negatives along with eighty silver prints, stereoscopic views, notebooks, and other photographic material. Realizing the images were of Jerusalem, Barnier eventually inquired about the identity of the photographer at the Harvard Semitic Museum. It was determined that the materials belonged to Mendel John Diness--thus providing the first known surviving material of his work except lithographs. An amazing story accompanied by excellent early photographs of Jerusalem in the 1800s.