American Colony, Jerusalem

Largely concerned with providing social services, education, meeting spaces, and medical care, it became known for producing and publishing an important documentation, photographic series of the area of Jerusalem starting in the early 1900s.

The society engaged in philanthropic work amongst the people of Jerusalem regardless of religious affiliation, gaining the trust of the local Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities.

[2] During and immediately after World War I, the American Colony carried out philanthropic work to alleviate the suffering of the local inhabitants, opening soup kitchens, hospitals, orphanages and other charitable ventures.

Although the American Colony ceased to exist as a religious community in the late 1940s, individual members continued to be active in the daily life of Jerusalem.

In 1992 representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel met in the hotel where they began talks that led to the historic 1993 Oslo Peace Accord.

Horatio left the Fullerton Presbyterian Church, which he had helped to build, organized a group of friends (dubbed "the Overcomers" by American press[3]), and decided to seek solace in the city of Jerusalem.

Moving into rented quarters inside the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, the group adopted a communal lifestyle and engaged in philanthropic activities.

As a result, 38 adults and seventeen children sold all their possessions and set off for the Holy Land to join the colony, arriving there in July 1896.

The colony, now numbering 150, moved to the large house of a wealthy Arab landowner, Rabbah Husseini, outside the city walls in Sheikh Jarrah on the road to Nablus.

Djemal Pasha, Supreme Commander of Syria and Arabia, who mounted a campaign to limit the devastation, asked the American Colony photographers to document the progress of the locust hordes.

With money from friends in the United States, the American Colony ran a soup kitchen that fed thousands during these desperate times.

When the British Allied commander, General Allenby, entered Jerusalem on December 11, 1917, the colony offered their philanthropic services to the new rulers of Palestine and continued to serve their fellow Jerusalemites.

The charitable work begun by the Spaffords continues today in the original colony house abutting the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The book Österlandet is a visual record of Algot Sätterström's (inventor, painter) interaction with members of the American Colony Photographic Division Lewis Larsson, Erik Lind, Furman Baldwin and Eric Matson.