Four Monumental Photo Albums - Travels in Eretz Israel and its Surroundings in 1894

Four Monumental Photo Albums - Travels in Eretz Israel and its Surroundings in 1894
Four monumental photo albums - travels through Egypt, Eretz Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland and Germany in 1894.
Pasted on the albums leaves are 479 photographs, documenting the journey in chronological order. The owner of the album added large decorated titles to most of the leaves, as well as quotes from the Scriptures and the New Testament (relevant to the photographed sites), quotes of poems and handsome large colorful (watercolor) illustrations. Usually, the illustrations are a direct continuation of the subjects in the photographs: Oriental characters, flowers, birds, landscapes, etc.
Approximately half the photographs in the album (235) are small "private" photographs, photographed by the owners of the albums and half (244) are large photographs, mostly taken by well-known photographers such as the Turkish photographer J. P. Sébah (1838-1890), the French photographer Félix Bonfils (1831-1885), the Greek photographers Adelphi and Constantine Zangaki, who were active in the 1870s-1890s) and the French photographer Rubellin (active from 1860, owner of a studio in Istanbul; later signed "Rubellin et fils" Rubellin and his son); most of these photographs are signed and titled in the plate.
The albums in which the photographs are arranged are particularly large (height: 31 cm. width: 45 cm. thickness: 6-10 cm.) and are bound to look like books: wide leather bindings, leather corners and gilded impressions. Thick cardboard leaves, gilt-edged. Apparently, the four albums were created especially for their owner by a binder from Liverpool. The title (the country or area of travel; see below), the year 1894 and the initials RMI are impressed in gilded letters on the front cover of each album.
The first album is titled Egypt and the Nile and its binding is green. Written on the first page of the album is "The Start", and it is composed of photographs of Gibraltar, Port Said, the Suez Canal, the Nile valley and Cairo, hotels in Egypt, pyramids, the Sphinx, mosques, camel-riding in the Sahara Desert, the Giza Museum and some of its exhibits (Sphinxes, mummies etc.), Thebes, Medinet Habu (the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III), etc. 77 large photographs and 73 small photographs are pasted on the album leaves. Four
photographs are enclosed.
The second album is titled Southern Palestine and its binding is red. It includes photographs of the market in Jaffa, a view from the house of Simon the Tanner of Jaffa, a view of Jerusalem from Mount Scopus, the Temple Mount (the Dome of the Rock is in the process of renovations), the Even HaShetiya (Foundation Stone), the Pool of Bethesda, Antonia Fortress, the Damascus Gate, Golgotha Hill, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jaffa Gate, the road to Bethlehem, the Tower of David, the Armenian Church, the entrance to the room of the Last Supper, Robinson's Arch, the Western Wall, the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), the Shiloach Pool, the Mount of Olives, the Valley of Yehoshafat (Kidron Valley), the Moabite mountains and the Dead Sea (view from the Mount of Olives), Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem, The Church of the Nativity, Solomon's Pools, Hebron, the Oak of Abraham (Oak of Mamre), "the Good Samaritan" site, Jordan Valley and Jericho, Mar Elias Monastery, the Jordan River, Shilo, Mount Ebal, Nablus, Sebastia, Dotan Valley, Mount Carmel, Druze at supper, Atlit fort, etc. 54 large photographs and 46 small photographs are pasted on the album leaves. 18 photographs are enclosed.