Selah Merrill

Title: East of the Jordan: a record of travel and observation in the countries of Moab, Gilead and Bashan ... With an introduction by ... R. D. Hitchcock ... 70 illustrations and a map. Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC. The HISTORY OF TRAVEL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This collection contains personal narratives, travel guides and documentary accounts by Victorian travelers, male and female. Also included are pamphlets, travel guides, and personal narratives of trips to and around the Americas, the Indies, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Merrill, Selah; Hitchcock, Roswell Dwight; 1881. xv. 549 p.; 8 . 10075.ff.9.

First published in 1881, East of the Jordan recounts the results of an archaeological expedition organised by the American Palestine Exploration Society in 1875-77. In two years the expedition members covered much of the region between Lake Tiberias (sea of Galilee) and the Dead Sea, in the upper and lower Jordan Valley. Along with meticulous descriptions of the major towns and sites of archaeological interest, the author also records details of the everyday lives of the inhabitants. These seemingly incidental occurrences, combined with the exquisite illustrations, endow the work with a quality of lasting interest, and great historical value. Selah Merrill (1837-1909), leader of the expedition, was an American Congregational clergyman who combined a love of travel with authorship of a number of works on the Middle East. He later became American Consul at Jerusalem.