The William Victor Kattan Collections document the lives of various members of the Kattan family, following their movements out of Bethlehem to various countries around the world.
The collections are focused on the ten children of Giries Hanna Kattan and Hanne Salame Kattan. They are: Khalil (b.1886), Josephine (b.1889), Habib (b.1893), Maria (b.1896), Regina (b.1898), Hanna (b.1903), Nakhleh (b.1906), Victoria (b.1908), Victor (b.1910), and Marguerite (b.1914).
During the first decade of the 20th century, the two eldest brothers, Khalil and Habib, established a new branch of the family business in Sudan along with their father Giries. Many of the siblings subsequently lived in Sudan at various points in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s.
Most of the materials in the collections relate to their lives in Sudan and how the family used its base there to expand into other areas of the world, including Germany, the UK, Egypt, India, Japan, Chile and Honduras.
The materials in the collections were kindly donated to the Planet Bethlehem Archive by William Victor Kattan. They have been divided into 3 collections:
1. Kattan Family Photos
2. Kattan Letters
3. Kattan Documents