The Historic Engravings collection is comprised of 154 pages of engravings, dating from 1747 to circa 1905. The engravings depict subject matter related to Africa and Africans.
Scope and Contents:
The Historic Engravings collection consists of 154 pages of engravings, dating from 1747 to circa 1905, with the bulk created in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many of the engravings were completed for publication in leading nineteenth-century newspapers, including the Illustrated London News and Harper's Weekly.
Numerous engravings depict scenes from expeditions, including the Dr. Livingstone (Central and South Africa), Baker (Central Africa), and Stanley expeditions. Topics illustrated include agriculture, ceremonies, city and town views, ships, animals, battles, domestic scenes, diamond mines, and fashions. Represented peoples include the Khoikoi, Abyssinian, Ashanti, Griquas, Khoikoi, Ndebele, and Zulu. Finally, the engravings depict such wide-ranging locations as Abyssinia, Annesley Bay, Chupanga, Dahomey, Gondokoro, Hadoda Pass, Hamhamo Spring, Keiskamma Gorge, Mount Kilimanjaro, Kongone River, Lake Tanganyika, Limpopo River, Matabili [now Zimbabwe], Morocco, Nigeria, the Red Sea, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Tekonda Pass, Ujiji, Umizimkulu Waterfall, Zambesi Delta, and Zanzibar, among others.
Arrangement:
Series one and two are arranged by publisher name and filed chronologically thereafter. Series 3 is arranged alphabetically by expedition leader name, and series 4 is organized by accession number.
Series 1: Illustrated London News, 1851-1901 (51 items; Map Case Drawer M1, 9 folders)
Series 2: Harper's Weekly, 1867-1905 (19 items; Map Case Drawer M1, 4 folders)
Series 3: Expedition Leaders, Bankes to Smith, circa 1800s-circa 1904 (51 items; Map Case Drawer M1, 11 folders)
Series 4: Other/Unidentified, 1747-circa 1905 (33 items; Map Case Drawer M1, 5 folders)
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Photographs that largely depict Zulu people, including Dinzulu kaCetshwayo, and a Hottentot woman. Represented photographers include Francis E. Pollard, J.E. Middlebrook, and possibly J. Barnett & Company.
Biographical / Historical:
Frank Abbott was an American doctor who went to South Africa in 1897-1899 as a representative of the phramaceutical company Parke, Davis and Company.
Local Call Number(s):
NAA Photo Lot 80-29
Location of Other Archival Materials:
Additional photographs by J.E. Middlebrook can be found in the National Anthropological Archives in Photo Lot 97.
Artifacts collected by Frank Abbott were donated to the anthropology collections of the National Museum of Natural History in accession 349800.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Access to the collection requires an appointment.
Rights:
Contact the repository for terms of use.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
Photo lot 80-29, Frank Abbott collection of photographs of South African peoples, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Indians of North America -- Great Plains Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Mounted prints
Photographic prints
Photographs
Date:
circa 1883-1884
Summary:
Photographic portfolios made by Prince Roland Bonaparte in his "Collection Anthropologique" group. The bulk of the collection consists of individual portraits of "Peaux-Rouges" (Omaha Indians), "Kalmouks" (Kalmyks), "Hindous" (Hindus), "Hottentots" (Khoikhoi), Somalis, "Atchinois" (Acehnese), and Surinamese. There are also some images of clothing, dwellings and animals, including camels and horses.
Scope and Contents note:
The collection is comprised of nine photographic albums (two are duplicates) of Omaha, Chinese, Kalmyk, Hindu, Hottentot, Somali and Surinamese people that were assembled by Prince Roland Bonaparte and published in a series of albums entitled the "Collection Anthropologique du Prince Roland Bonaparte". Many of the photos were undertaken at various international exhibitions of the late nineteenth century: the Kalmyk and Omaha photographs were executed in Paris at the Jardin d'Acclimatation (1884) and the Hindu, Somali, Surinamese and Chinese photographs were taken during the 1883 Colonial Exposition in Amsterdam.
All of the albums, except for the volume on Surinamese peoples, is comprised of albumen prints. The Surinamese album includes photographs, collotypes, imprints, and text. Each album, except for those of the Hottentot and Surinamese people, is accompanied by an inventory produced by Bonaparte that lists the name, age, job and family lineage of each person.
Arrangement:
Within each series the original order was maintained. The photographs are organized by culture groups into seven series:
Series 1: Omahas
Series 2: Chinese
Series 3: Kalmyks
Series 4: Hindus
Series 5: Khoikhoi
Series 6: Somalis
Series 7: Surinamese
Biographical/Historical note:
Prince Roland Bonaparte (1858-1924) was the grandson of Lucien, the second brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Forbidden by law to pursue the military career he desired, he turned to geography and other sciences and received anthropological training from Paul Broca. Starting around 1882, he began to create and distribute albums organized by culture group as part of an "anthropological collection of human diversity." He studied the Lapp people in Finland in 1884 and then traveled to Mexico, Canada and, in 1887, the United States to study American Indians. The photograph project ended in the mid-1890s. He also published on other topics including the history of the Dutch colonial empire and glaciers of the French and Swiss Alps.
Photo lot 80-52, Prince Roland Bonaparte photograph collection of Omaha, Kalmouk, Hindu, Khoikhoi, Somali and Surinamese peoples, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Col. Travers autograph letter signed to Sir Richard Southey, concerning "Pay to families of Zanzibar Volunteers." (Cape of Good Hope), 28 November 1860
A voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, towards the Antarctic polar circle, and round the world but chiefly into the country of the Hottentots and Caffres, from the year 1772 to 1776 by Andrew Sparrman ... ; translated from the Swedish original ; with plates ; in two volumes
Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505; being a description of the inhabitants of the country south of the Zambesi and Kunene rivers in A.D. 1505, together with all that can be learned from ancient books and modern research of the condition of South Africa from the earliest time until its discovery by Europeans, by George McCall Theal
'Race', warfare, and religion in mid-nineteenth-century Southern Africa : the Khoikhoi rebellion against the Cape Colony and its uses, 1850-58 / Elizabeth Elbourne
'Sketching the Khoikhoi' : George French Angas and his depiction of the Genadendal Khoikhoi characters at the Cape of Good Hope, c. 1847 / Russel Viljoen
