Rey (E. G.), Photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant, 1857-1870

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Summary

Title:

E. G. Rey photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant

Dates:

1857-1870

Creators:

Rey, E. G. (Emmanuel Guillaume), 1837-1916

Abstract:

The collection comprises 42 photographs (32 paper negatives and 10 photographic prints) of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant taken by the French archaeologist, topographer, and amateur photographer, Emmanuel Guillaume Rey during his three expeditions to the Levant between 1857 and 1865. Also present in the collection is a partial dummy of his account of crusader castles in the Levant, Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés (1871).

Extent:

4 Linear Feet

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

E. G. Rey photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant, 1857-1870, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2023.R.29.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/archives2023r29

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises 42 photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant taken by E. G. Rey during his three expeditions in the Levant during which he focused his photographic lens exclusively on archaeological architectural remains and artifacts. His resulting images are some of the earliest photographs taken of ancient sites in Syria and Jordan.

The photographs in the collection record 33 distinct structures representing different aspects of ancient and medieval architecture. Included are 32 calotype negatives and ten positive images (seven salt prints and three albumen prints). Seven negatives have corresponding prints, while two prints, one of which has been enhanced with graphite, correspond to an eighth negative.

During the 1850s, the region of Palestine and Syria saw an influx of western photographers, with Auguste Salzmann, Mendel Diness, James Robertson, and Maxime du Camp most notable among them. Only a few of these early photographers, notably du Camp and Salzman, utilized their cameras in the service of the developing field of archaeology. Whereas Salzmann and du Camp were intellectuals with an interest in ancient sites, Rey was the first archaeologist in the region to make use of the camera.

On his first expedition in 1857-1858, undertaken when he was barely 20 years old, Rey focused on the Hauran region (now part of of modern-day Syria and northern Jordan), and the Dead Sea. The first group of Rey's photographs present in the collection includes 14 paper negatives and seven salt prints stemming from this expedition. They document the sites of Phaena (Al-Masmiyah), Kanatha (Qanawat), Athela (Atil), and Bosra, all now in modern-day Syria, as well as Gerasa (Jerash), in modern-day Jordan. Present here are photographs of Greco-Roman sites including temple complexes and panoramas of the sites of the ancient cities of Bosra and Gerasa. Monuments depicted include the Praetorium Temple at Phaena; three temples at Kanatha; the north and south temples at Athela; the Roman baths and nymphaeum at Bosra; and the oval forum, western baths, and colonnaded streets of Gerasa. A photograph depicting a colossal head at Kanatha represents the only photograph of a sculptural fragment found in the group.

The photographs resulting from Rey's first expedition are an important historical marker: they were the first photographs to be taken in eastern Syria, and they were also the first photographs taken by an archaeologist-scholar. With these images Rey not only built on the work of earlier photographers, but established a visual cannon for depictions of the region. As late as 1865 scholars of the Holy Land relied on Rey's photographs as a basis for illustrations in their own works: Josiah Leslie Porter's The Giant Cities of Bashan and Syria's Holy Places (1865) is one such example.

During the early 1860s, the use of photography in the archaeological exploration of the Levant became more professionalized. The most notable of these projects include the British Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem of 1864-1865 and the ambitious project undertaken by the the duc de Luynes to survey and photograph the cities and archaeological sites of the Dead Sea basin during his 1863-1864 expedition. At that time, Rey was in the region executing a commission for the French government, and he met Luynes and his photographer, Louis Vignes, during the course of his work. Rey subsequently shared part of his travel itinerary from Beirut northward with Vignes, and he met his fellow photographer again after the latter's return from Palmyra.

The second group of photographs in the collection comprises 18 paper negatives and three albumen prints from Rey's two later expeditions of 1859-1860 and 1864-1865, with the majority originating from his last journey. The locations depicted in this group are the ancient Greek temple complex at Baetocaece (Hosn Suleiman), and the crusader sites of Tortosa (Ṭarṭūs), and Sayhun Castle (Kalaat Sayhun), all located in modern-day Syria, as well as Montfort Castle (Kalaat Kreine), near Haifa, in modern-day Israel. Again, Rey's photographs are among the earliest taken in the region. His images of Baetocaece are the earliest known photographs of the site, as are those of Montfort Castle. While de Clercq, Rey's travel companion for his second expedition, photographed a number of crusader castles in northern Syria, the only location both men photographed was Tortosa where each photographer captured different aspects of the site.

As a result of his expeditions Rey published a number of books and essays on the history and archaeology of the Levant, including Voyage dans le Haouran (1860), his first publication; its text volume comprises a travelogue, while its atlas of 26 plates comprises lithographs of monuments and inscriptions as well as engravings of maps and plans of the Hauran region, Bosra, Jerash, and the Dead Sea. Nine of the photographs in the present collection were translated into lithographs for this volume.

Rey's study of crusader fortifications in the Levant, Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés (1871), was the result of his later expeditions. The four images of Sayhun Castle and the citadel of Tortosa present in the collection were translated as engravings in this work. Also present in the collection is a partial dummy assembled from several proofs of the publication.

Biographical / historical:

Baron Alban Emmanuel Guillaume Rey (E. G. Rey; born Haute-Marne, Chaumont 1837, died Chartres, 1916), was a French archaeologist, topographer, and amateur photographer with an interest in the Middle East, and the Levant in particular. As a member of various archaeological societies, he undertook three archaeological expeditions to the Levant between 1857 and 1865.

For his first expedition in 1857-1858, undertaken when he was barely 20 years old, Rey focused on the Hauran region (now part of of modern-day Syria and northern Jordan), and the Dead Sea. The aims of his second expedition in 1859-1860, during which he was accompanied by the photographer Louis de Clercq, were to explore the topography of the "tribe of Juda" and to search for historical traces of biblical events in Palestine. For his third expedition in 1864-1865, during which he shared a partial itinerary with the French naval officer and photographer Louis Vignes, Rey explored crusader castles in northern Syria.

As a result of his expeditions Rey published a number of books and essays on the history and archaeology of the Levant, including Voyage dans le Haouran (1860), an account of his first expedition, and Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés (1871), a systematic study of crusader fortifications in the Levant.

In 1865, Rey was made a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by the Vatican. The following year, he became a Knight of the Legion of Honor and Foreign Orders as a publicist in charge of missions in the East. During the Franco-Prussian War, Rey was the commandig officer at Eure-et-Loir and camped with his troops at the Château de Lauresse in 1871 which he later purchased when it went up for sale in 1877. Rey donated his collections of antiquities from the Levant to the Louvre and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres.

Sources consulted:

Curinier, C. E. "Rey (Alban-Emmanuel-Guillaume)," Dictionnaire national des contemporains. Paris: Office général d'édition, 1889-1906.

Marie de Lombron. "Le Château de Lauresse (ou Loresse)." https://www.mairie-lombron.fr/notre-commune/patrimoine-architectural/le-chateau-de-lauresse/

Rey, Emmanuel Guillaume. Voyage dans le Haouran et aux bords de la Mer Morte: Exécuté pendant les années 1857 et 1858. Paris: Arthus Bertrand, Libraire-Éditeur, 1861.

________. Étude sur les monuments de l'architecture militaire des croisés en Syrie et dans l'île de Chypre. Paris: Impr. nationale, 1871.

Terpak, Frances and Hans Pech. "Acquisition Approval Form for "Emmanuel Guillaume Rey (French, 1837-1916), 42 photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant; two related publications and one book dummy by Guillaume Rey, 1857-1871.'" May 24, 2003.

Acquisition information:

Acquired in 2023.

Processing information:

Beth Ann Guynn processed the collection and wrote the finding aid in 2024.

Arrangement:

Arranged in a single series: Series I. E. G. Rey photographs of Syria and the coastal regions of the Levant, 1857-1870.

Physical location:

Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:: Temples, Roman -- Syria
Architecture, Medieval -- Latin Orient
Military architecture -- Latin Orient
Temples, Greek -- Syria
Albumen prints -- Syria -- 19th century
Calotypes (negatives) -- Syria -- 19th century
Salted paper prints -- Jordan -- 19th century
Salted paper prints -- Syria -- 19th century
Photographs, Original
Panoramas (visual works) -- Jordan -- 19th century
Panoramas (visual works) -- Syria -- 19th century
Places:: Syria -- Antiquities
Jordan -- Antiquities

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:: Beth Ann Guynn
Date Encoded:: This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-01-15 10:26:25 -0800 .

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