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

Lithographed half-length portrait of Mgr Athanase Abd-El-Messih, captioned "évêque syrien", in a turban and robe with a pectoral cross, holding a book. A note on the sheet reads "Voyage en France en 1839"; the BnF gives his birth year as 1788.

Athanase Abd-El-Messih, Syrian bishop, on his 1839 visit to France

Engraving of a barefoot Syrian (Assyrian) girl in a long dress and headscarf, carrying a load on her back, from Bird's letter on the Ashiret (tribal) Assyrians such as the Tyari.

A Syrian (Assyrian) girl, 1891 engraving

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

Engraving of two men in felt caps, a woman and a small child, captioned "A Syrian family", printed in Bird's letter written from the house of the Patriarch, likely at Qudshanis in Hakkari.

A Syrian (Assyrian) family, 1891 engraving

Engraving of the stone church of Mar Shalita at Kochanes (Qudshanis), the patriarchal seat, with its graveyard, trees and grazing animals below the mountains.

Church of Mar Shalita, Qudshanis, 1891 engraving

Lithograph of the vaulted interior of the Church of Et-Jâhara (possibly al-Tahira) at Mosul, looking toward the carved sanctuary at the eastern end, with a robed figure in the nave.

Church of Et-Jâhara, Mosul: eastern end, 1852 lithograph

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

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

Hand-coloured lithograph of a man from the Nestorian mountain tribes in a striped coat and trousers and a blue cap, with a walking stick.

A Nestorian (Assyrian) of the mountains, 1843 lithograph

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

Drawing of the dark interior of the church of Mar Shalitha at Qudshanis, seat of the Patriarch of the Church of the East, with the arches to the sanctuary and sacristy and offerings of herbs hanging from the beams.

Interior of the church of Mar Shalitha, Qudshanis

Drawing of the rocky gorge at Rabban Hormizd, the monastery in the hills above Alqosh, signed "Rabban Hormizd" in the lower left corner.

Rabban Hormizd, drawing by Edgar Wigram

Watercolour of a Nestorian woman in a red-and-white checked mantle, red bodice and patterned skirt, carrying a water jar on her back, with a small figure in green holding a jug beside her. One of a set of Qajar paintings commissioned by the missionary Justin Perkins.

A Nestorian (Assyrian) woman carrying water, painting, about 1839

Watercolour of a mountain Nestorian in a tall felt hat, green jacket, black vest and wide checked trousers, holding a crooked staff, his long shirt sleeves hanging from the wrists as the inscription describes. One of a set of Qajar paintings commissioned by the missionary Justin Perkins; a later hand wrote "Balochistan" on the mount.

A Nestorian (Assyrian) man of the mountains, painting, about 1839

Engraving of a flat-roofed, two-storey stone house with an open upper floor in a mountain valley, with figures on a path in the foreground. Captioned "Nestorian house in the Tyari", on p. 216 of George Percy Badger's The Nestorians and Their Rituals, vol. 1 (London, 1852), where Badger describes the simple flat-roofed houses of Asheetha and the Tiyari country, some with a second storey.

Nestorian (Assyrian) house in Tiyari

Lithograph of the monastery of Mar Mattai built against the cliffs of a mountain above a rocky gorge, with small figures on the path below. The plate, captioned "Syrian convent of Mar Mattai or Sheikh Matta", faces p. 97 of George Percy Badger's The Nestorians and Their Rituals, vol. 1 (London, 1852); Badger visited the convent in 1844 and 1850 and signed his preface there in August 1850.

Syrian convent of Mar Mattai (Sheikh Matta)

Engraving captioned "Mardeen" showing two turbaned men on a crenellated stairway above a walled town on a hillside. From p. 48 of George Percy Badger's The Nestorians and Their Rituals, vol. 1 (London, 1852), in his account of reaching Mardin, which he says "commands a view of the seemingly boundless plains of Mesopotamia".

View of Mardin (Mardeen) with two men on a crenellated wall

Lithograph of two women in long white robes, tall headdresses and necklaces, one standing with a jug and one kneeling to fill a jug at a stream beside a stone wall. The plate, captioned "Jacobite females of Midyat in Gebel Toor" ("Christian Females of Midyat" in the list of plates), faces p. 55 of George Percy Badger's The Nestorians and Their Rituals, vol. 1 (London, 1852), where Badger describes Midyat as "inhabited exclusively by 450 Jacobite families".

Faces, places & memories of the Assyrian people.