Special Collections

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This exhibit includes 70 rare 19th-century prints of the Holy Land by Mendel Diness and his teacher James Graham, along with a selection of original artifacts used by the photographers. Organized by the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and featuring some of the earliest known photographic images of Jerusalem, the exhibition is the result of an unlikely discovery at a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1989. This will be the first known exhibition of James Graham’s work since an 1862 exhibition in London.

Graham, a Scottish missionary, was among the first Europeans to travel to the Near East in the 1850s, while it was under Ottoman rule. He documented landscapes, temples, tombs and other historic sites in the region, in photographs of stunning print quality. One of the first photographers to reside in Jerusalem, Graham had a unique photographic vision that stemmed from his intimate knowledge of the city.

His student, Mendel Diness, became an accomplished photographer in his own right. Originally a watchmaker, Diness was the first Jewish photographer in Jerusalem. He later converted to Christianity and eventually settled in the United States, where he became a preacher.

The exhibition will expose visitors to the history of 1850s photography while highlighting the medium’s role in luring tourists to pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land.

Thirty-five medieval and Renaissance treasures— including works by Italian masters Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Pisano and Antico— are touring the United States in 2008. The items, mostly small-scale works of art, were created for the embellishment of medieval churches or for wealthy Renaissance collectors. These masterpieces belong to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and are on loan for the first time.

Among the items in the collection are a bronze sculpture by Donatello called Winged Putto with Fantastic Fish and the 12th-century Reliquary Casket of St. Thomas Becket (pictured), which held the priest’s relics for a decade after he was murdered.

The highlight of the exhibit is Da Vinci’s Codex Forster III, an illuminated sketchbook written in the master’s characteristic “mirror script.” Interspersed with Da Vinci’s notes on geometry, weights and hydraulics are sketches of a horse’s legs, perhaps connected with his work on an equestrian statue, drawings of hats and clothes that may have been ideas for ball costumes, and an account of the anatomy of the human head.

The exhibit will also travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (May 20–August 17, 2008), the High Museum of Art in Atlanta (October 11, 2008–January 4, 2009) and Millennium Galleries in Sheffield, England (January 29–May 24, 2009).

Legendary English archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) spent most of his life excavating ancient Egyptian sites. His monumental work at Giza, Abydos and Amarna— during which he developed new scientific approaches for establishing chronology— established him as “the father of Egyptology.”

This exhibit, on loan from the English museum that bears his name, displays over 200 of the most significant finds from Petrie’s 50-year career in Egypt. Some of his most important work occurred at Amarna, home to Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh and father of the boy-king Tutankhamun. The exhibit brings to life the science of archaeology during its infancy as seen through the eyes of one of its greatest pioneers. This remarkable collection includes royal accoutrement, mummy portraits, furniture and jewelry, objects of everyday life— including one of the world’s oldest extant dresses— and fascinating illustrations of the technology of the ancient Egyptians.

Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History

New York, New York