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------------------------------------------------------------ Outline view: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms008123 ------------------------------------------------------------
Scope and Content NoteThe papers of John David Whiting (1882-1951) span the years 1890-1970, with the bulk of the material dating from 1904 to 1964. They document his life and career as a member of the American Colony in Jerusalem, a Christian utopian community founded in 1881. Whiting, the first child born at the American Colony, married the daughter of the American Colony leaders, Horatio and Anna Spafford, and, aside from a few periods abroad, raised a family and resided at the American Colony until his death. He was a business manager and artifact dealer with the colony’s enterprise, Fr. Vester and Co., also known as the American Colony Store. Over the years he guided religious pilgrims, archaeologists, and other tourists on tours to ancient historic sites in the Middle East. Whiting was a photographer with the American Colony Photo Department, and he published articles on the Holy Land and the Middle East in National Geographic. His intimate knowledge of the region also led to service as deputy United States consul for Jerusalem and to his military intelligence work during World War I. The material in this collection has been arranged into diaries, family correspondence, film catalogs and caption lists, general correspondence, photographs, subject file, and miscellany. Whiting's diaries span the years 1905 to 1941 but do not cover the entire period. Many focus on Whiting’s travels and provide details of his guided trips to ancient sites in the Middle East that he conducted throughout these years. The earliest diaries describe the use of horses and camels for these excursions and those from the 1930s tell of travel by car and airplane. His 1912 diary recounts a trip to London where Whiting sold antiquities and photographs by the American Colony Photo Department. The journal for 1918 focuses on the intelligence work Whiting carried out in the region for the British Army from September to November. In addition to the daily accounts, the book contains notes for his intelligence reports. Diaries from the 1930s and 1940 provide the most detail about Whiting’s home life. The family correspondence section, 1946-1951, n.d., focuses on events in the lives of the next generation of the Whiting family, but it also describes the dangerous situation in Jerusalem and its effects on the American Colony during the last years of Whiting’s life. This correspondence chronicles the move by Edmund Wilson Whiting, John and Grace Whiting’s youngest son, and his wife, Alice Brauch Whiting (“Sally”), from the United States to Jerusalem, to live at the American Colony in August 1947, at what proved to be the beginning of the Arab-Israeli War. The major portion of the letters are from Alice to her parents in Iowa describing her life at the American Colony, the increasing tensions in Jerusalem, the birth and illness of their first child, and their return to the United States in early 1948. Letters from John and Grace Whiting describe acts of hostility and terrorism in Jerusalem and John’s declining health. Film catalogs and caption lists, 1929-1950, n.d., provide negative numbers and captions for photographs Whiting took during his trips. Many of these catalogs and caption lists relate to his “Diaries in Photos” that are housed in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. These albums contain captioned scenes of Petra, the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, and Cappadocia, as well as shrines, mosques, tombs, and holy or sacred spots in Palestine, Turkey, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, and other areas to which he traveled. The “Diaries in Photos” complement his written diaries of the trips. In the general correspondence, 1903-1920, n.d., letters sent and received by Whiting provide details about his personal life and business enterprises. Arranged chronologically, these letters chronicle two periods separated by a gap during the years of World War I when the American Colony received no postal service. Correspondents in the early years include Americans who had visited the American Colony and lecturers who purchased American Colony photographs and lantern slides of sites in the Holy Land for their presentations. Some of Whiting’s letters contain lengthy accounts of his trips. There is very little correspondence after 1911 until 1918, but a few typed copies of letters from the United States in 1916 provide accounts of funds raised to support American Colony relief activities during the war. The largest group of letters dates from 1919 and documents Whiting’s efforts to reestablish contact with friends and business contacts. The letters include his lengthy accounts of wartime conditions and American Colony activities during World War I. A letter from 17 July 1919 is particularly informative. A section of photographs includes pictures of family members and scenes depicting American Colony life and an album documenting the locust plague of 1915. Another portion of photographs is housed in the Prints and Photographs Division, including twenty-seven albums depicting family and American Colony life, events in World War I and the early British Mandate era, and scenes of the people and places of the Middle East, many of the images produced by Lewis Larsson, Eric G. Matson, and other American Colony Photograph Department photographers. Also housed in the Prints and Photographs Division are Whiting’s “Diaries in Photos” from his travels in the 1930s. Among the subject files are published volumes of the National Geographic containing articles by Whiting and photographs by him and other American Colony photographers as well as his correspondence with the magazine. Included in material relating to his service as deputy United States consul for Jerusalem are his reports on industry and commerce in the region. Grace Spafford Whiting’s commonplace book, “Things To Be Remembered,” contains lists of deaths of American Colony residents from 1885 to 1962. Many of the entries also include cause of death and place of burial. Also enclosed in this book is a description by Jacob Spafford, adopted son of Anna and Horatio Spafford, of his discovery of the inscription in Hezekiah’s Siloam tunnel as a boy, and John D. Whiting’s curfew pass issued by the Palestine police in 1936. Related MaterialsThe John D. Whiting Papers are closely related to the American Colony of Jerusalem Papers and the G. Eric and Edith Matson Collection in the Prints and Photographs Division. Arrangement of the PapersThis collection is arranged alphabetically by type of material. Container List
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