Travelling | Tourism | Souvenirs

Souvenirs served to connect tourists to the past, fabled destinations and spiritual encounters – even when back home …

Collecting objects while travelling became increasingly popular from the 18th century onwards, not only among the elite now, but also the emerging middle classes of Europe and – to a lesser extent – among Arab and Ottoman travellers. With the increased influx of a wide range of European travellers and – eventually – sight-seeing tourists to the Middle East, the urge to collect souvenirs took on new dimensions. Whether eager to physically connect with the past, hold on to the magic of a fabled destination, partake of a site’s spiritual blessing, prove one’s “having been there” to friends and family back home, or all of the above, travellers went to all lengths to collect, purchase, or obtain by other means – legal or otherwise – significant objects along the way. Local dealers in antiquities and art readily catered for the wealthy, while makers of trinkets and reproductions scrambled to attract those of lesser means. Photos and postcards, perhaps, were the most widely distributed type of souvenir at the time. Meanwhile, a variety of souvenirs were made exclusively to commemorate an important visit or event.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
AT 027Mummy board and inner coffin for Nes-pauti-tauiKunsthistorisches Museum, Egyptian Collection21st Dyn, c. 1000 BC; excavated in 1891Wool covered with linen cartonnage; painted, vanishedEarly tourists were fascinated by ancient Egypt and went to all lengths to take home something of what remained of its fabled civilisation, including entire mummies! Indeed, eventually, there was such demand that locals started to make fake mummies in order to meet it.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
AT 031FriezeKunsthistorisches Museum, Egyptian Collection4-3th century BC; brought to Vienna by Edward Glaser in 1882–1894Stone (Kalksinter)Other regions and antiquities in the Arab and Ottoman world beyond the lands of Egypt also attracted the interest of 19th-century travellers on occasion. Between 1882 and 1888, the Austrian scholar Edward Glaser ventured to Southern Arabia several times to explore ancient scripts. The objects he collected while there were focused on his interests, and many are now in European museums.
AT 022Tomb relief from PalmyraKunsthistorisches Museum, Collection of Greek and Roman AntiquitiesAD 3rd centuryStonePalmyra had fascinated Europeans since its initial discovery in the late 17th century. By the 19th century, many travellers who took up the challenge to reach it were eager to secure a memento from among its ruins, an activity that went unchallenged at the time. This relief was obtained by Dr James Samson, an Austrian diplomat active in the Ottoman Empire.
AT 006Lamp from a mosqueKunsthistorisches Museum, Weltmuseum1896This 19th-century mosque lamp, probably made in Palestine originally, was purchased in Aden from a Yemeni dealer by the naturalist Franz Steindachner. Many travellers collected objects that were either immediately relevant to the purpose of their trip or represented items of an exotic contemporary life and culture that fascinated them.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
AT 117Tile fragment of the Omar Mosque in Jerusalem MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Artc. 1600Glazed ceramic, with floral decoration This early 17th-century tile is recorded as having come from the “Omar Mosque” in Jerusalem, located near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the 19th century, it was common practice for both tourists and curio dealers – whether legal or not – to chip off pieces of buildings or architectural decoration.
AT 119Tympanum made of 16 tiles from the palace of the grand vizier Piale Pasha (c. 1515-1578)MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art1573; acquired in 1885Frit ceramic with transparent enamel over white background with floral decoration in the colours darkblue, blue, turquoise and red (tomato red) with black contoursBoth natural disasters and demolition in the wake of modernisation projects offered European travellers and early tourists the opportunity to obtain or buy salvaged fragments of evocative architectural heritage. This 16th-century tympanum was rescued from a damaged building after an earthquake and then sold to the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.
GR 001Exposition d’Art MusulmanBenaki Museum1925PhotoBack home, European travellers and collectors proudly displayed the souvenirs and artworks collected during their travels. Each piece was cherished for the stories and memories associated with it just as much as for its aesthetic appeal.
UA 018Fragment of an interior Kiswa Cover for the Ka'ba in MakkahSharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation / Sharjah Museums AuthorityHegira late 12th – early 13th century / AD late 18th – early 19th centuryLampas woven, red and beige silkReligious tourists often returned with souvenirs from the spiritual and holy sites they had visited. Within the Muslim world during the Ottoman era, textile fragments like this one were prized mementos among pilgrims visiting the Holy Cities of Mecca (Makkah) and Medina (Madinah).
AT 012Coat of a bedouin collected during the Expedition of the Austrian Ship Pola under the command of Paul von Pott to explore the Red SeaKunsthistorisches Museum, Weltmuseum1839CottonThe colourful clothing of the peoples of the Arab and Ottoman world intrigued Western tourists. Textiles and clothing were often collected as treasured mementoes of journeys and adventure; some items had been worn as a disguise while travelling while others were specifically purchased to be worn back home to appear “exotic” or to impress family and friends.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
JO 016DaggerJordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Department of AntiquitiesLate 19th century – early 20th centurySilver, iron; casting, incised and nielloIn many parts of the Middle East and North Africa, daggers formed an integral part of a man’s dress and functioned as a symbol of his manhood and dignity. For European travellers, these often intricately worked weapons – soon mass-produced for the tourist market – were sought-after souvenirs.
MO 045DishBatha Museum19th centuryCeramicTraditional arts and crafts attracted many foreign buyers, who often built up entire collections of them. Some of these later formed the basis for European museum collections. Moroccan ceramics, and those from Ottoman İznik, Kütahya and Çanakkale, were particularly sought after.
DZ 020Rug Musée Public National des Antiquités19th century Woven wool; knotted-pile carpeting In the 19th century, the weaving and carpet industries flourished in the Middle East. Carpets and rugs from regions of the Ottoman Empire and Iran were often brought home by travellers, and they were most coveted possessions.
SP 093Pair of tablesCerralbo Museum19th centuryWood, bone inlaidMany of the traditional crafts found in the local suqs of the Middle East in the 19th century were now made specifically for foreign visitors. Delicately inlaid items of furniture – the most famous from Syria – were often taken home to serve as centrepieces in carefully arranged Orientalist “smoking rooms” or parlours.
JO 014Arab coffee potJordan Museum for Costumes and Jewellery, Department of AntiquitiesCopper; casting, hammeringThe Arabic coffee pot has remained a popular souvenir from the Arab and Ottoman world to this day. A symbol of generosity and hospitality, it is an implement found most typically among the Bedouin tribes of Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and the Arabian Peninsula.
DZ 183Small vialMusée Public National des Arts et Traditions Populaires Copper and silver In the later 19th century, the traditional workshops in the suqs of the Arab and Ottoman world began to produce curios and mementos specifically aimed at the tourist market. This vase, made either in Egypt or Syria, recalls the artistic style of the Mamluks, who had ruled the region between the 13th and early 16th centuries.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
SP 090Model in plasterCerralbo Museum2nd half of the 19th centuryPlaster, wood; casted, paintingThe Alhambra in Granada, Spain, was undoubtedly one of the most enticing Islamic sites to be “rediscovered” by European travellers in the 19th century. Its “Moorish” architecture and ornament inspired countless travel narratives and romantic fictional stories. As a result, visitors could not resist the urge to take a piece of it home – either in the form of a souvenir or – indeed – by chipping away at the structure itself.
UK 090A Turkish Coffee-House, ConstantinopleVictoria and Albert Museum1854In large Ottoman and North African cities, a whole range of tourism-related industries sprang up in the 19th century. Artists and photographers, too, now aimed to provide visitors with attractive genre scenes and vistas to take home with them.
DZ 129View of CairoMusée National des Beaux-Arts1896Oil on canvas Paintings of popular foreign sites always sold well: sometimes travellers bought the work while abroad, but many were also purchased at home, to remind travellers of places they had been and to evoke the atmosphere they had experienced.
FR 062Jerusalem, al-Haram al-Sharif, Dome of the RockNational Library of France 1842–1844Jerusalem’s historic as well as its religious legacy made it an important stop-over on itineraries of 19th-century European tourists. In cities like this, artists and photographers set up studios to provide visitors with commemorative vistas.

Working NumberNameHolding MuseumDateMaterialsCurator Justification
FR 016View of Istanbul: the Valide Sultan Mosque and the portNational Library of France 19th century Most travellers to the East passed through Constantinople on their way to destinations farther afield. Most were keen to obtain souvenir photographs from there. Pascal Sébah opened a photographic studio in Constantinople in 1857, and such was his success that by 1873, he had opened a branch in Cairo as well.
FR 073HaremNational Library of France c. 1870“Exotic” and eroticised images of Muslim women were highly sought-after souvenirs, among male European travellers in particular. Their suggestive scenes implied that the owner had somehow gained access to the “forbidden” sensual world of a local women’s harem, while at the same time evoking a sense of the perceived savage “backwardness” of the societies from which the women came.
DE 015Dar al-Baladiyya, DamascusMuseum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, State Museums1900Postcards designed as souvenir images first became common in the late 1870s and 1880s. Showing well-known landmarks, people and scenic views, they were soon mass-produced and became an important part of the emerging souvenir industry.
DE 006Port, BeirutMuseum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum, State Museums1900Due to the emergence of modern transport and communication networks in the 19th century, postcards could now be used to update family and friends at home while the sender was still abroad. This postcard commemorates a particular event, the opening of the railway station at Beirut Port.
FR 076Cairo: houses and gardens in the French quarter. Flaubert in the foreground.National Library of France 1852In addition to the rise in commercial photography, many tourists had also started to make use of modern cameras to take their own “snaps” to record their journey for family and friends at home. Here, the French author Gustave Flaubert is photographed while on a visit to Cairo.
AT 051Box with the image of an artillery emplacement of the Austro-Hungarian Army at the Sinai in 1916Austrian Military Museum / Institute of Military History1916SilverMilitary souvenirs were produced to commemorate particular battles or engagements; some were commissioned by governments or indeed were made by the soldiers involved. This souvenir box commemorates the involvement of the Austro-Hungarian Army in action at the Sinai Peninsula in 1916.