Gezicht op het Dal van Hinnom en een gezicht op een trap op de Engelse begraafplaats in Jeruzalem before 1865

James McDonald produced this two-part albumen print in the nineteenth century, showing the Valley of Hinnom, and a staircase in the English cemetery in Jerusalem. This composite image, contained within a bound volume, tells us much about the social and cultural context of its production. The image speaks to the rising popularity of landscape photography, but it is also a product of Western travelers and religious pilgrims eager to document and map the Holy Land, reflecting the growing influence of European powers in the region, and in the development of institutions such as foreign cemeteries. What does it mean to photograph, classify, and then bury people in a land that is not your own? To understand this image better, one could consult missionary archives, travelogues, and colonial records, as well as photographic histories. The meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional context.