Churchill visits a cemetery, German prisoners march through the streets with British soldiers, athletes compete in the YMCA, Jews demonstrate against the "White Paper"
Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall, 1914
Photography:
American Colony Photo Department / Library of Congress
In the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., a treasure is hidden: thousands of photographs taken by members of the American Colony community in Jerusalem ("American Colony"), 1940-1890.
This treasure was recently discovered by the people of "MyHeritage", a company for discovering, preserving and sharing family history through the construction of family trees, and they began an exciting project to turn black and white images into color.
"The story of the community whose members took the photos is a fascinating story," says Roy Mendel, MyHeritage's lead researcher and project leader.
"This is a community of Swedish immigrants, Messianic Protestants, who came to the United States and settled in Chicago.
They believed that at the end of the 19th century a great event was about to take place, in which Jesus would return to the world as the Messiah and people would be enlightened, so Jerusalem is the place to be.
"Towards the end of the 19th century, they arrived in Jerusalem, with photographic equipment that was not here, and formed a kind of photographers' team, led by two main photographers - Elisha Myers and Lewis Larson. In fact, community photographers documented everything that happened in Jerusalem for about 50 years. "From 1890 to 1940, including important historical moments, such as General Allenby entering the gates of Jerusalem, as well as situations from everyday life - pumping water from the well, snow in Jerusalem, families of Hasidic hosts in their homes, and more. Their archive includes thousands of photos."
For image processing, MyHeritage used two new applications they developed: MyHeritage In Color and MyHeritage Photo Enhancer.
"The first application uses technology that knows how to paint the image in the most faithful way to the original, based on artificial intelligence," Mendel explains.
"In fact, he learns the world on the basis of a database of hundreds of millions of images and know to paint a picture that raise black and white. If, for example, you upload a picture of Jerusalem in the late 19th century, the system will know what the probability colors of the image and paint it accordingly.
" The second application is Technology that enhances the image, sharpens it and refines its resolution at the highest possible level.
For example, you can get a bright, sharp close-up on a person's face in a family or group photo, and see the facial features and expressions of the people.
"The combination of these two applications, which are accessible on our site and can be tried on any image that any user wants to upload, actually creates a kind of time machine, which throws you into the moment the image was taken. The moment an image was immortalized - especially once, when we did not photograph ourselves. There has always been a special moment, with meaning. Now, a few generations later, we can bring our users right into that moment, when they feel they are in the picture, in the late 19th or early 20th century.
"It is an exciting experience. , Whose purpose for us is to make people more interested in their family picture, to explore through it their history, to find amazing stories about themselves and their family and also to help in the study of general history.
Because everyone's family and personal history is a piece of the whole historical story of the peoples, countries and countries and in fact of the whole world.
"Now, especially in the Corona period, when we can't really go on trips and hikes, we have a technological option to go on a time travel."
The Guardians of the Wall
British and Indian soldiers standing near St. Stephen's Gate (Lions Gate), April 8, 1920
Captive audience
A convoy of German prisoners of war captured by the British during the First World War, led through the streets of Jerusalem, 1917
Before the traffic jams
The pastoral Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, 1937
The queue for the mail
Jews standing in line in front of a post office in Jerusalem to send telegraph messages in the midst of the events of 1929
White flag protest
A demonstration by the Jewish community against Britain's "White Paper" at the corner of King George and Agrippa streets, May 18, 1939
Quiet to be here
Armed British forces march through the city streets in an attempt to bring order to the events of 1929
As if photographed today
An ultra-Orthodox young man walking past Arab children in the alleys of the Old City, in the mid-1920s
give up
The Ottoman government surrendered to the British army, December 9, 1917. In the center of the photo: Jerusalem Mayor Hussein al-Husseini
A history of violence
Events of 1914: An Arab mob riots in the Old City in protest of the immigration of Jews from Germany to Israel (Fifth Aliyah), October 1933
From all good
Avraham Albert Antebi (on the right), one of the leaders of the Jewish Yishuv, at a fundraising bazaar of the Red Crescent organization during World War I, 1917
A performance by Churchill
British Colonial Minister Winston Churchill meets with Bishop of the Anglican Church to visit Mount Scopus Cemetery, 1921
Expulsion from home
Jewish families leaving the Old City through the Jaffa Gate due to the events of 1929
Photo finish
Athletics competition at the YMCA, in the mid-1930s
Vintage fashion
Jewish children in the yard of a house in the Bukharan neighborhood, in the mid-1930s
All photos: American Colony Photo Department / Library of Congress
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