The Penn Libraries is excited to announce the debut of the online home for their Holy Land collections. The Holy Land Collections website features a wide range of special and general collections related to the Holy Land including rare manuscripts, original archeological artifacts, engraved maps, and many other fascinating primary and secondary source materials.

Among the most important collections in the series is the Lenkin Family Collection of Photography. This collection, purchased in 2009 with a generous donation from Edward J. Lenkin (C ’71 PAR ’12), consists of over 5,000 early photographs of the Holy Land dating from 1850 to 1937. The rich images in the collection provide glimpses of the early landscape, architecture, and history of Palestine, allowing the viewer to transport themselves from desktop or dorm room to a time before the state of Israel was founded.

This project was made possible through the leadership of Carton Rogers, Vice-Provost and Director of the Penn Libraries, an ongoing partnership with the National Library of Israel and its Director General, Oren Weinberg, who supported the digitization of the entire Lenkin Family Collection; and the invaluable vision and advice of Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities and Vigevani Professor of European Studies at the Hebrew University, Dror Wahrman. Kislak Center Digitization Specialist, Dennis Mullen; Digital Photographer, Ardon Bar Hama; and devoted Penn Libraries volunteer and cataloger, Louise Strauss (C ’82) were also integral partners to the project.

Explore the Holy Land Collections for yourself at:

http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/holyland/index.html