The American Legation Museum of Tangier, also known as TALIM for its English acronym, is one of the most interesting museums in Tangier. It’s especially significant for American citizens, as it consecrates and reviews the diplomatic relations of friendship between the USA and Morocco. However, any lover of history and art will also find many reasons to visit it. And in this post, we tell you about some of those attractions.
The Building and Gardens
Before delving into the ‘content’ of the museum, it’s worth mentioning that the ‘container’ is also worthwhile: a beautiful building in neo-Andalusian style, with a pleasant inner courtyard in the style of a riad and different terraces with panoramic views of the surroundings, including the Strait of Gibraltar.
Washington, Roosevelt and Morocco
Diplomatic relations between the United States and Morocco date back to the early years of US independence. This is demonstrated by the Treaty of Marrakech of 1787, which is displayed right at the entrance of the building, along with handwritten letters from George Washington appealing to friendship with the Moroccan head of state at that time, Sultan Mohamed III. Other historical documents are also shown that attest to these bilateral relations, such as photographs of Franklin D. Roosevelt in Casablanca.
Paul Bowles: The Well-Deserved Tribute
As we tell you more extensively in this other post, the American writer Paul Bowles, who lived much of his life in Tangier, receives his well-deserved tribute in this museum, with the recreation of his workplace in the city, where he wrote some of his best works (The Sheltering Sky) and composed folk music. He contributed to Tangier being considered a literary city.
A Magnificent Collection of Maps
As you walk through this museum, you can also discover the rich collection of maps that the institution possesses. More specifically, the one that focuses on the Strait of Gibraltar, where Tangier is located. These cartographic representations show the geopolitical reality at different moments in the history of this enclave, so important and strategic for relations between Europe and Africa.
An Extraordinary Pictorial Collection
Walking through the elegant rooms of the museum, furnished with pieces from different eras, it’s worth stopping before certain works of art that the institution owns. And in most cases, they are by local artists or foreigners settled in Tangier, which constitutes one of the best pictorial collections related to the city.
It’s worth highlighting, without a doubt, the works of the McBeys. On one hand, the Scottish etcher James McBey, with scenes of local landscapes. But above all, his wife and later widow Marguerite McBey, a painter with a colorful and vitalist style, of enormous recognition in the international sphere.
No less interesting are the posters by Mariano Bertuchi, considered the best artist of the Spanish Protectorate era, with scenes of popular and natural environments of northern Morocco, with a light that demonstrates varied inspirations, including that of Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish painter who also immortalized landscapes and costumbrist scenes decades earlier.
And we can’t forget the works of one of the great Moroccan painters of the 20th century, which also hang on the walls of the museum: Hassan El Glaoui, where the post-impressionist tradition and the powerful light of Morocco are combined, giving life and color to these already picturesque rooms. George Owen, Wynne Apperley or Stuart Church are some of the many other artists represented.
And among meeting tables, chairs of noble woods and chandeliers, display cases with books and historical documents, as well as models and miniatures of various events, such as the famous Battle of the Three Kings, in Ksar el-Kebir, in 1578.
