A line of barefoot girls in headscarves and long patterned skirts carry large clay water jars on their backs past a brick wall. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 50 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Armenians water-carrying (Nestorians)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as "Jeunes filles Nestoriennes faisant le métier de porteuses d'eau" (young Nestorian women working as water carriers).

Nestorian (Assyrian) girls carrying water jars

Jilu Assyrian refugees bend over piles of clothing and bedding laid on the ground beside a mud-brick wall while men in caps look on. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees sorting clothing, 1918

A British soldier in a pith helmet kneels beside a cooking pot with Jilu Assyrian refugee women and children in a desert camp. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees cooking with a British soldier, 1918

A woman in a headscarf rides a laden horse among a mounted column of refugees from Urmia passing through Bijar in western Persia in 1918. The Australian War Memorial caption speaks of some of the 80,000 refugees from Urmia.

Urmia refugees on horseback trekking through Bijar, 1918

Studio portrait of a Nestorian Christian family in Persia: two men stand behind seated women and girls in floral dresses, embroidered caps and necklaces, before a painted backdrop. Glass-plate photograph by Antoin Sevruguin, likely late 19th or early 20th century.

Nestorian (Assyrian) Christian family, studio portrait by Sevruguin

A Jilu Assyrian refugee woman in a headscarf and layered clothing carries her child on her back and lifts a cup for it to drink. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian mother giving her child a drink, 1918

A British soldier in a pith helmet crouches to tend a small child sitting on a bundle, while a Jilu Assyrian man in a fur cap watches; refugees and tents stand behind. Photographed by Ariel Varges in 1918.

British soldier tending a Jilu Assyrian refugee child

Dozens of Jilu Assyrian orphan children sit on a bank of rubble breaking stones for a new road in Persia, watched by mounted and standing overseers, 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian orphans breaking stones for the Persian road

Women and children from Jilu, some seated on the ground and some standing in long dresses, headscarves and a fur cap, gather in an open camp in western Persia in 1918. Photographed by Ariel Varges.

Jilu Assyrian refugee women and children, 1918

A Jilu Assyrian man in a felt cap and sash, holding a long stick, leads a mule piled with bedding and carrying a young rider; more refugees follow behind. Photographed by Ariel Varges in western Persia in 1918.

Jilu Assyrian refugees with a laden mule, 1918

Hand-coloured lithograph of a Nestorian mother in a checked shawl and red dress standing beside her small daughter in a green coat.

A Nestorian (Assyrian) mother and her little girl, 1843 lithograph

Hand-coloured lithograph of a Nestorian girl in a red dress, green trousers and white headscarf, carrying a clay water jar on her back.

A Nestorian (Assyrian) girl carrying water, 1843 lithograph

The rocky hill of Kala Ismail Agha (Castle of Ismail) with a walled enclosure and a line of people in the foreground. The caption says a great massacre described in the book took place near the base of the mountain.

Kala Ismail Agha, near the site of a massacre

A large crowd of men, women and children, captioned "Nestorians from the Plain", gathered in a field. Likely the Urmia plain of north-west Persia, the subject of the book.

Nestorians (Assyrians) from the plain

Two women in headscarves, embroidered jackets and long skirts work a goatskin churn slung from a wooden tripod in a courtyard. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 52 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; published in The Living Races of Mankind (1901) as "Butter-making in goat-skin Churns (Nestorians, Armenia)" and by D'Allemagne (1911) as Armenian women making butter.

Nestorian (Assyrian) women churning butter in a goatskin

Women sit outside a doorway with stacks of thin flatbread, a dough tray and a stone hand mill, which one woman turns with a wooden handle; a child holding a cat sits among them and a young woman with a basket stands at right. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 49 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; D'Allemagne (1911) captions it "Femmes Nestoriennes broyant le grain ou le sel et fabriquant le pain" (Nestorian women grinding grain or salt and making bread).

Nestorian (Assyrian) women grinding grain and baking bread

A large crowd of refugees, many of them children, sit and stand before a brick building with a large wooden door, with two men in frock coats and lambskin hats at right. Newton & Co lantern slide no. 55, listed in the firm's 1911/12 catalogue as "Refugees from Massacres, principally Nestorian some are Armenians"; the Nelson Collection attributes the photograph to Ernest Hoeltzer and dates it to the late 19th century.

Refugees from massacres, mostly Nestorian (Assyrian) with some Armenians

A woman in a headscarf, embroidered jacket and striped skirt spins wool on a drop spindle, holding the raw wool aloft, in a courtyard with a wooden balustrade; possibly the same woman and courtyard as in the butter-making slide (AA-0019). Newton & Co lantern slide no. 53 from the series "The Persians, Kurds, and Nestorians, their manners and customs", attributed by the Nelson Collection to Ernest Hoeltzer, late 19th century; D'Allemagne's 1911 book captions the same image "Femme Arménienne filant la laine" (Armenian woman spinning wool).

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.