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Category: Far-Away Moses

Two full-length photos of a bearded man dressed in Ottoman attire.

The Faith of Far Away Moses: Yom Kippur, 1893

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Note: This is part of a series of posts about Far Away Moses, a fascinating celebrity of the 19th century, who served as the model for one of the keystone heads on the Thomas Jefferson Building.  Moses, a Sephardic Jew from Constantinople, knew some of the most prominent Americans of his era, including Theodore Roosevelt …

The Folklore of Far Away Moses

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The Face of Far Away Moses People who have come to visit our research center in the beautiful Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress may have noticed the interesting faces that adorn its exterior. Known as the “ethnological heads” or “keystone heads,” the faces were intended to demonstrate the different characteristics of the …