TRISTRAM, HENRY BAKER°

TRISTRAM, HENRY BAKER ° (1822–1906), Anglican theologian, archaeologist, and naturalist whose work dealt with Palestine. Born in Eglingham, Northumberland, England, and educated at Oxford, Tristram became an Anglican vicar. He served as secretary and army and navy chaplain to the governor of Bermuda (1847–49), rector of Castle Eden near Durham (1849–60), vicar in Greatham (1860–74), and resident canon at Durham Cathedral. Delicate health forced him to spend winters in warmer climates such as North Africa, the Sahara, and the Far East. He visited Palestine several times from 1861 onward. In 1879 Tristram was offered by Disraeli the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem but declined. During his visits to Palestine he inspected missionary establishments and at the same time carried on geological, botanical, and zoological research, which earned him the title of "father of the nature study of Palestine."

Apart from numerous articles in periodicals, Tristram's published work concerned with Palestine included The Land of Israel, a Journal of Travels with Reference to Its Physical History (1865, and many editions), Natural History of the Bible (1867), Land of Moab (1874), Pathways of Palestine (1882),Fauna and Flora of Palestine (1884), and Eastern Customs in Bible Lands (1894).

add. bibliography:

odnb online; Y. Ben-Arieh, The Rediscovery of the Holy Land in the Nineteenth Century (1979).

[Aviva Rabinovich]