Procession, Kairwan, Tunisia, Graham Petrie, 1899

This photochrome print of a procession in kairwan, tunisia, is part of “views of architecture and people in tunisia” in the catalog of the detroit photographic company. Kairwan was once the political and religious center of tunisia and was considered the country's holiest city. In his 1908 book tunis, kairouan & carthage: described and illustrated by forty-eight paintings, the british artist and author graham petrie (1859–1940) declared that "it is the absolute duty of every visitor to tunis to make a pilgrimage to the holy city of kairouan," which he described as "undoubtedly the most interesting city in tunisia; glowing with colour, scintillating with light, and teeming with oriental life; it seems to realize all one's dreams of an eastern town. " the detroit photographic company was launched as a photographic publishing firm in the late 1890s by detroit businessman and publisher william a. Livingstone, jr. , and photographer and photo-publisher edwin h. Husher. They obtained exclusive rights to use the swiss "photochrom" process to convert black-and-white photographs into color images and to print them by means of photolithography. This process originated the mass production of color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the american market. Parades and processions. Date: 1899. Place of creation: al-Qayrawān. Dimensions: 1 photomechanical print : photochrom, color. Medium: photograph, prints. Collection: Library of Congress. Procession, Kairwan, Tunisia WDL2517