Druse

For a little historical relief, here are some photos that we have resurrected from family archives, taken about 1925 when my grandfather was the American Consul in Damascus
and my grandmother was trying to establish a career as a photo-journalist, and together they visited the Djebel Druze in Syria, at the time of the Druze rebellion against the French mandate authorities.
For their initiative my father was declared the equivalent of persona non grata and subsequently forced by the French
(with the acquiescence of the State Department) to be transferred to Beirut, where they could keep an eye on him. Of course when he returned
to Damascus as the American Minister in 1948 he was greeted as a hero of Arab nationalism, rather than as an eager beaver Foreign Service reporter, which is what he was in 1925. Click on each small photo to enlarge it, once you go to the site.
© Matilda Vossler Keeley 1927