Israel Studies: Digital Documents

The G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection is a rich source of historical images of the Middle East. The majority of the images depict Palestine (present day Israel and the West Bank) from 1898 to 1946. Most of the collection consists of over 22,000 glass and film photographic negatives and transparencies created by the American Colony Photo Department and its successor firm, the Matson Photo Service. Over 1,000 photographic prints and eleven albums are also part of this collection.

Contains some 1500 ancient maps of Jerusalem and Eretz Israel from the NLI collections, and is updated regularly.

Among the oldest and most extensive collections of Middle East photographs. Includes images of Palestine, Israel, Syria, Trans-Jordan, and Lebanon dating from 1850 to the present, with a primary focus on the latter half of the 19th century and the early half of the 20th century. Of special note, photographs from excavations and the Survey of Western Palestine (1871-1877). No online access.

Come and meet Rudi Weissenstein's PhotoHouse: 45 years of photographing the Land and State of Israel. The collection contains the work of a photographer who traveled the breadth and width of the land and documented its development – from the momentous to everyday life.

The objective of the "Time Travel" project is to collect and scan Israeli ephemera and make them accessible to the general public. The project is sponsored by the Arcadia Fund and is a collaborative project of the National Library of Israel and UCLA.

Comprises images of Palestine-Israel covering the past 150 years. The viewer can pay a visit to Jerusalem in the 19th century, Tel Aviv as it emerged over 100 years ago, the agricultural settlements of Palestine during the Mandate period and the newly established State of Israel. You can follow in the footsteps of individuals, both famous and forgotten, witness cultural events and economic enterprises, archeological excavations and educational institutions, and become acquainted with the diverse cultures imported by the waves of immigration as well as local Arab culture.

The Ze'ev (Wilhelm) Aleksandrowicz Collection encompasses some 16,000 photographs, most of which were taken in the early 1930s.