The City of the Great Singer: C. R. Ashbee's Jerusalem

The eminent British architect, designer and educator Charles Robert Ashbee (1863–1942) lived and worked in Jerusalem from 1918 to 1922, as Civic Adviser to the City of Jerusalem and principal officer of the Pro-Jerusalem Society. This proved to be a busy and fruitful period in his late career. Back in England sixteen years later, following a final visit to Palestine, Ashbee compiled his Jerusalem Collection, assembling and classifying all the research and planning material he had collected and developed during his Jerusalem years. Edited by Ashbee in his old age and never published in its entirety — and therefore remaining virtually unknown — the collection contains not only textual material but also hundreds of original drawings, plans and watercolour perspectives, together with photographs, the illustrated material bearing autograph annotations throughout.