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

A Mass in the rite of the Syrian (Syriac) Church in the pavilion of the Papal States at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris; the caption places Cardinal Tappouni at the centre of the clergy at the altar.

Syriac-rite Mass with Cardinal Tappouni at the 1937 Paris Exposition

Clergy and guests gather on the steps of the Church of Saint-Ephrem des Syriens in Paris on 6 October 1929. The caption names, from left, Mgr Ignace Tappouni, General Gouraud and Mgr Khayatte; processional crosses rise behind them.

Ignace Tappouni, General Gouraud and Mgr Khayatte at Saint-Ephrem

Mgr Khayatte kneels before the altar, surrounded by clergy and altar servers, as he is raised to the rank of chorbishop at the Church of Saint-Ephrem des Syriens in Paris on 6 October 1929.

Mgr Khayatte raised to chorbishop at Saint-Ephrem, Paris

A bearded archbishop in a long cassock with a pectoral cross stands on a ship's deck holding a broad-brimmed hat. The press caption names him as Chourkaila Kury, Syrian archbishop, from a Central News photograph taken in New York in May 1920.

Syrian archbishop Chourkaila Kury aboard ship

Syriac Orthodox bishops in vestments with croziers and liturgical fans stand among priests, men in fezzes and children in a monastery courtyard in Mosul. The source names the Indian Metropolitan Dionysius VI at the centre.

Celebration at the Syriac Orthodox monastery in Mosul

Group portrait of Russian Orthodox and Assyrian clergy, published in Niva in 1898 under the title "The joining of the Syro-Chaldean Nestorians to the Orthodox Church". The Russian caption names, among others, Bishop Iona, Archpriest Viktor Sinadsky and priest David Veniaminov.

Leaders of the 1898 union of Urmia Assyrians with Russian Orthodoxy

A smiling nun in a dark headwrap stands beside a stone book rest holding an ornate metal gospel cover outside the west porch of the Church of the Virgin (El Adra) at Hah in Tur Abdin. Photographed by Gertrude Bell in May 1909.

Nun with a gospel at the Church of the Virgin, Hah, 1909

A bearded cleric in a black robe and cap stands in the west porch of the Church of the Virgin (Yoldath Aloho) at Hah in Tur Abdin, holding a metal-bound gospel beside a stone book rest. Photographed by Gertrude Bell in May 1909.

Priest holding a gospel at the Church of the Virgin, Hah, 1909

An elderly bearded archdeacon in a white headcloth and a torn, patched coat stands holding the hand of a young boy. Published in 1916 in Rockwell's account of the Assyrian refugees in Persia; he was likely a Church of the East cleric from Hakkari.

A refugee archdeacon and a boy, 1916

Engraving of a Syrian (Assyrian) priest in a turban and his wife in a headscarf and necklaces, seated side by side, from Bird's letters from Kurdistan.

Syrian (Assyrian) priest and his wife, 1891 engraving

Lithograph portrait of Mar Shimoun, Patriarch of the Nestorians (the Church of the East), in a large turban and holding a staff. Frontispiece of volume 2 of Badger's The Nestorians and Their Rituals.

Mar Shimun, Patriarch of the Nestorians, 1852 lithograph

Seated portrait of the Rt. Rev. Addai Sheir (Addai Scher), Archbishop of Sairt (Siirt), in a skullcap and cassock with a pectoral cross. Naayem's book includes depositions on the massacre at Sairt.

Archbishop Addai Sheir of Siirt

Portrait of the Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon in a round hat and robes, wearing a sash, decorations and a pectoral cross. The caption does not give his name.

The Chaldean Patriarch of Babylon

Six priests and deacons of the Church of the East in mountain dress and turbans, three seated and three standing, in front of a tent at Baghdad in 1919.

Priests and deacons of the Nestorian (Assyrian) church, Baghdad, 1919

Portrait of Abraham Mar Shimun, 136th Patriarch of the Church of the East, in a large turban and holding a staff, likely a drawing.

Patriarch Abraham Mar Shimun

Head-and-shoulders portrait of Ruel Mar Shimun, described as the late Patriarch of the Assyrian Christians, in a dark turban, likely a drawing after a photograph.

Patriarch Ruel Mar Shimun

Small portrait of the Patriarch Mar Shimun, standing in an embroidered vestment with long hair, captioned "Mar Shimun in his Vestments", printed beside his letter of 25 April 1916 thanking a London society for relief funds. Given the date, this is likely Mar Benyamin Shimun.

Mar Shimun in his vestments, 1916 printing

Two white-bearded clergymen in dark robes sit side by side before a brick wall: the Matran Mar Khnanishu, Metropolitan Bishop of the Assyrian Christians, in a turban, and the Rev. Y. M. Neesan in a mortarboard cap. Plate from the 1916 pamphlet "The Pitiful Plight of the Assyrian Christians in Persia and Kurdistan."

Metropolitan Mar Khnanishu and Rev. Y. M. Neesan

A white-bearded priest in a white robe and dark stole sits outside a mud-brick wall with crosses above its arched doorway, reading a large manuscript Bible open on a low wooden stand. Tel Tamer on the Khabur, 21 July 1938.

Assyrian priest with his manuscript Bible at Tel Tamer, 1938

Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Jerusalem, in a hood embroidered with crosses and a pectoral cross, points to an unrolled Dead Sea scroll beside three men at the Library of Congress. The scrolls he had bought were on exhibition there from 23 October to 6 November 1949.

Metropolitan Athanasius Yeshue Samuel with a Dead Sea scroll, 1949

Tinted lithograph by Charles Fenderich of Mar Yohannan, bishop of Urmia, in a large striped turban and robe with his hand on his chest, above a line of Syriac script and a caption "translated by his brother and fellow laborer in the gospel, J. Perkins." The print is dedicated to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and was likely made during his 1842 visit to America with Justin Perkins.

Mar Yohannan, Bishop of Urmia, lithograph portrait, 1842

Shemasha (Deacon) Ishai d'Mar Shimun, father of Patriarch Mar Benyamin Shimun, sits in front of a line of men in tall felt hats, embroidered jackets and striped trousers, several holding rifles, possibly in Urmia. Bain's caption on the negative calls him a "Nestorian Archbishop", which the Library of Congress notes is a misidentification.

Shemasha Ishai d'Mar Shimun with his secretary and servants

Stereograph of a bearded archbishop in a round hood and dark robes, wearing a large jewelled pectoral cross and encolpion, seated before a window; the card titles him "The Syrian Archbishop, head of the Syrian Christian Church of Palestine." The archbishop is not named.

The Syrian (Syriac Orthodox) archbishop in Palestine, about 1900

Clergy in vestments and black hoods process across a chequered marble floor during the Orthodox Holy Fire ceremony at Easter 1941; the photographers' log names the procession as the Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox one led by Archbishop Jacob Filixinos. The ceremony is held in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, likely the setting here.

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.