Extensive and diverse collection of more than 1000 items (most of them are photographs) from the estate of Hanna Rovina (1888?-1980), Israeli theater actress who won the title of "First Lady of Hebrew Theater", winner of the Prize of Israel for Theater (1956). Rovina won great esteem and was an admired figure in Israel and worldwide; she devoted her life to theater and never left the stage almost until her last days.
Collection includes:
1. More than 900 photographs of Hanna Rovina, among them photographs of plays in which she acted (including photographs from the years prior to the immigration of "Habima" to Palestine and from the first years of "Habima" in the country); portrait photographs; group photographs with friends, "Habima" theater actors and actors from other theaters, politicians, artists and intellectuals; photographs of family members; press photographs; and more. [Israel, Europe and the USA, ca. 1925-1975]. Some of the photographs are titled and dated on the reverse. On some photographs appear handwritten dedications to Rovina.
Among the photographs: * Photographs portraying Rovina with Avraham Shapira, Reuven Rubin, Pinchas Litvinovsky, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion (enclosed is an additional photograph of Ben-Gurion sleeping in the field and surrounded by soldiers), Avraham Shlonsky and others. * Photographs from the film "The Deluge" with the participation of "Habima" actors, 1925 (after the play by "Habima" in the same year in Russia). * Photographs from the plays "Eternal Jew" and "Hadybbuk".
* Photograph from farewell party for Moshe Halevi (founder of HaOhel" theater), 1925. * Photographs from shooting the film "Sabra" (Israeli film from 1932 directed by Aleksander Ford, considered the first talking feature film in Palestine). * Photographs from the plays "Uriel D'Acorsta", "Hostages", "Mira'le Efrat", "Mother Courage", "Two Worlds", "Macbeth", "The Cherry Orchard", "Hagolem", and more. * Album with twenty two photographs from the play "Halehava HaKedosha" (ca. 1931). * Three portrait-photographs of Rovina by Alfred Bernheim (stamped with photographer's ink-stamp. Two are signed by hand). * Numerous photographs which Rovina received from friends, among them "Habima" actors, with dedications written by hand; and more.
2. Several letters to Hanna Rovina (in Hebrew, Russian, German and Yiddish), among them are letters from Kadya Molodovsky, Anda Pinkerfeld, S. Shalom, David Remez and others.
3. Several autograph letters or drafts of letters by Hanna Rovina, including a draft of a letter to Mordechai Ish-Shalom, Mayor of Jerusalem, letter to Simon (Shimon) Wiesenthal, and more.
4. Items related to an event held in 1958 on the tenth anniversary of the State of Israel in which Rovina read the "Declaration of Independence": photograph from the occasion; a letter to Hanna Rovina concerning this issue; text of the Declaration of Independence to which was added a handwritten letter to Rovina from the actor Aharon Meskin [who writes: "I believe that you are the person who should and must read the Declaration of Independence"].
5. Items related to the premiere of the symphony "Kadish" (symphony no. 3) by Leonard Bernstein, played by the Israeli philharmonic orchestra with the participation of Hanna Rovina (as narrator), 1963. Among the items: advertising posters for this performance; booklets and printed leaves with the narrator's text, with markings and comments written by hand by Rovina; newspaper clippings with articles about the event.
6. Letters and greeting cards given to Rovina after her participation in the play "Ha'em" (the mother), in 1964 and after being awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Tel-Aviv University in 1975.
Total of more than 1000 items. Size and condition vary. Some photographs appear in multiple copies.
Provenance: Shlomo Shva collection.

Eight press photos documenting the end of the British Mandate and the Israeli War of Independence, 1946-1947.
Press photos, captioned and dated on reverse by the news and photo agencies that published them.
* Explosion of a freight train carrying crude oil. * Curfew on a Jerusalem street. * Aerial photo of the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem, occupied by British forces. * British soldiers at their post in Tel Aviv, in reaction to Jewish terrorist acts. * British soldiers performing searches in Netanya. * Funeral of the British victims of the bombing of the King David Hotel. * A British soldier at his post on the Tel Aviv-Jaffa road. * Gathering of a Jewish crowd in Jerusalem following a terrorist attack.
Average size: 19X22.5 cm. Good overall condition. Some photos with stains, a few creases and gluing marks (to reverse).

About 60 photographs of David Ben-Gurion, most of them taken by the photographer Ephraim (Efrem) Ilani and a small part by other photographers. Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Sde Boker, Ovdat and other places in Israel, late 1940s until early 1970s.
Among the photographs: Last session of the "Provisional Government" in Tel-Aviv (on 10.2.1949); Reading the "Declaration of Independence" (signed on the reverse: "Fred Csasznik"); Visiting injured soldiers during the Independence War; Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weizmann and Yigael Yadin on the podium during the first military parade (on 23.4.1950, in Jerusalem); Meeting between Ben-Gurion and the Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt; Ben-Gurion as godfather in a circumcision ceremony, in "Bet Lid" new immigrants camp; Speech in the archaeological site of Ovdat; and more.
Some of the photographs are titled by hand and ink-stamped on the reverse: "Efrem Ilani"; "Foto Erde" (Ephraim Erde); F. Schlesinger; and other ink stamps. Some photographs appear in two copies.
Total of about 60 photographs. Size and condition vary. Average size: 20X22 cm. Overall good condition. Some creases and defects at margins. Traces of glue on the reverse of some of the photographs. Adhesive tape on the reverse of few photographs. One photograph in fair condition with many creases and defects at margins.

Two albums and a photograph collection documenting the construction of the "new potash plant", pumping station P-6 and the loading facility at Ashdod Port. Dead Sea and Ashdod, [ca. 1960s].
* "Pumping station P-6": souvenir album with 43 photographs, captioned by hand, documenting the construction of the facility stage by stage. Dedicated on the title page to "E. Shahar" (Emanuel Shahar, director of "Dead Sea Works").
* "Inauguration of the new potash plant, 19 Kislev 1964": souvenir album with nine large photographs (ca. 20X25 cm) documenting the inauguration ceremony of the plant and the facilities in November 1964. Enclosed: color postcard with a photograph of the plant, sent by Emanuel Shahar.
* 43 unbound photographs documenting the construction of the loading facility at Ashdod Port. About half are signed on reverse with the ink stamp of photographer Shimon Fuchs, and some are dated with an ink stamp. The photographs include two panoramas. Enclosed: printed page with the inscription "photographic journal from the construction of the loading facility at Ashdod Port" (Hebrew), with a dedication to Emanuel Shahar, apparently from an album that held the photographs.
Total of 95 photographs. Albums: 30X40 cm and 27.5X37 cm. Size and condition of photographs vary. Good overall condition. Stains to some of the photographs. Gluing traces on reverse of most of the unbound photographs. Cut corners to some of the unbound photographs. Albums in good condition.