William Lewis Sachtleben
1895, 1-2 November
Armenian massacre victims laid out in the Armenian Gregorian Cemetery, Erzurum, Turkey

Photographic b&w negative
University of California (UCLA) - Library
Collection: Sachtleben (William Lewis) Papers. Collection 1841, Local identifier: uclamss_1841_0335
 
Photograph of the bodies of Armenian massacre victims laid out on the ground near a wall and among trees in the Armenian Cemetery in Erzurum, with one man looking down in grief and three men and one woman near the wall. The deceased man in the foreground wears undergarments, recalling a passage in William Sachtleben's Nov. 16 letter in the London Times: "All the corpses had been rifled of all their clothes except a cotton under-garment or two. These white under-clothes were stained with the blood of the dead, presenting a fearful sight."
 
On Wednesday, October 30, 1895, Armenians were massacred in Erzurum and the surrounding Armenian villages. American journalist William Sachtleben happened to be in Erzurum at that time, investigating the disappearance of American cyclist Frank Lenz. During the massacre Sachtleben was in the American mission building, where over 200 Armenians fled for protection. Sachtleben witnessed the aftermath of the massacre; he took photographs of the victims in the Armenian Cemetery and wrote three lengthy and detailed letters about the massacre that were published, unsigned and attributed to an Occasional Correspondent, in the London Times on November 16, 27 and December 9. In the Nov. 16 letter he wrote: "Saturday, Nov. 2...I went with one of the cavasses of the English Legation, a soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer (Armenian) to the Armenian Gregorian Cemetery. The municipality had sent down a number of bodies, friends had brought more, and a horrible sight met my eyes. Along the wall on the north in a row 20ft. wide and 150ft. long, lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians..."
 
LL/131279