Scope and Content Note
The papers of G. Eric Matson (1888-1977) and Edith Matson (1889-1966) span the years 1908-1977, with the bulk of the material dating from 1963 to 1977. The papers are in English and Swedish and are organized into the following series: Diaries, Correspondence, Miscellany, and Oversize.
The Diaries mostly encompass Eric Matson’s operation of the Matson Photo Service in California after leaving Jerusalem in 1946. Only a few sporadic volumes represent the years he lived in the American Colony of Jerusalem and worked as a photographer in the American Colony Photo Department. Early diary entries record photographic work and include the date of the shoot, the number assigned to the photograph, its subject and location, expenses incurred, and maps. The 1908 and 1919 diaries are in the same volume, with the 1923 entries recorded in a volume labeled 1922. In 1934, Matson was given control of the American Colony Photo Department and its assets, but the 1935 diary kept by Matson on a trip to Cappadocia with American Colony member John D. Whiting is the only item representative of that decade. The diaries are continuous from 1942 to 1977 covering the years after 1940 when the name of the business was changed to the Matson Photo Service. All volumes include entries about social events, travel, people encountered, and contemporary historical events.
The Correspondence series largely relates to the Matson Photo Service and its clients, with letters to and from publishers and individuals wishing to purchase copies of Matson’s photographs of the Holy Land comprising the bulk of the correspondence. Letters are interleaved with annotated invoices, check stubs, notes, and printed matter.
The Correspondence also contains letters with former employees, family members, friends, acquaintances, and organizations. Correspondents such as Louis George Deeb, Gabriel Said Diek, Joseph H. Giries, Lars E. Lind, Hanna Safieh, and Michel S. Stephan were former employees and colleagues of Matson who worked for the American Colony Photo Department and Matson Photo Service. Their correspondence discusses the upheaval in Palestine, safeguarding and storing photographic equipment, restarting Matson Photo Service after the restoration of peace, and Palestine in general. Related to this correspondence are letters filed under Jerusalem Young Men’s Christian Association pertaining to the storage of images from Matson Photo Service in the basement and their later retrieval. Other correspondence includes letters to and from the Matsons' children David, Anne, and Margaret, the Axel Matsson and Olaf Matsson families, and Clarence W. Sorensen, many containing photographs.
The Miscellany series contains financial records of the American Colony Photo Department and Matson Photo Service, brochures and catalogs of their filmstrips and slide sets, price lists, and the text for a slide lecture. Other items include biographical material, a photograph of the Matson family, a 1924 letter from Edith Edna Yantiss to Matson before their marriage, speeches and writings, and maps.