Image Details

John D. Whiting, published in National Geographic, December 1915
Like living soot, the locust horde spreads itself in a dark quivering layer over the walls and trees of Jerusalem in this photo taken by John D. Whiting during the 1915 plague. According to Whiting, the thick masses of locusts that encrusted the walls of buildings proved especially obnoxious because of their tendency to fall onto, and under, the shirts of passers-by.