In the summer of 1896, villagers from Nås, Sweden, traveled to Jerusalem to await the second coming of the Lord. They became part of the American Colony, a nonconformist religious sect led by Mrs. Ann Spafford. Their story is told here in a remarkable collection of images from a group known as the American Colony Photographers, which from 1910 to 1930 was led by Lewis Larsson. Here are more than 320 rare archival photos from the Middle East, many of them tinted or colored, and some filling two pages. This visual history not only provides a vivid depiction of the Swedish emigration, and how they were disappointed by the failure of their religious dreams, but also re-defines a formerly misrepresented photo history.