Philby, Harry St. John Bridger and A.L. Holt--Lantern slides

36 glass lantern slides (82 x 82mm.), most captioned in ink on the mount, preserved in five contemporary card boxes, together with a set of later photographic prints from the original slides, 4 slides cracked or damaged

Philby, H.St.J.B., Jauf and the North Arabian Desert; Holt, A.L., The Future of the North Arabian Desert; The Geographical Journal, vol.LXII, no.4, October 1923, pp.241-271; El Hage, B. Saudi Arabia Caught in Time 1861-1939, (Reading, 1997), pp.99-103

In 1922 Major Holt travelled with Philby and others some 600 miles across North Arabia, from the Trans-Jordan to Mesopotamia, in a number of specially fitted Ford motor cars as far as Kaf, near Wadi Sirhan and from there by camel with an escort for the rest of the journey. Holt was a Royal Engineer who was conducting a survey to find a route for a Trans-Arabian railway, while Philby's main objective was to investigate the political situation at Jauf. The photographs show Amman and the amphitheatre, Qasr Amij, Wadi Amij, camels, a plane crash, Qasr Al Khubbaz, Qasr Amej, Wadi Hauran, Sulubi camp, Sulubi men and women, a group of the modified Ford motor cars at Qasr Khubbaz, Qasr Zraq, Qasr Hallabat, "Yamuk" waterfalls, Amman and a street and mosque in Jauf.