Photographs - Ethnography

  • A Yoruba village watchman in tree. Jebba district, Northern Nigeria, circa 1910.

    # 21228

    Photographer unknown.

    A Yoruba village watchman in tree. Jebba district, Northern Nigeria, circa 1910.

    Silver gelatin print photograph on card stock, 80 x 130 mm, tipped onto a page (165 x 125 mm) removed from a disbound traveller’s album, photographer’s inscription beneath image in ink: ‘Native Watchman. Shewing how he protects himself from wild animals during the night’; lengthier pencil inscription in the same hand to verso of print …

  • Photographic portrait of a Tokelau woman from the Line Islands, circa 1875.

    # 20088

    DUFTY, Francis Herbert (1846-1910)

    Photographic portrait of a Tokelau woman from the Line Islands, circa 1875.

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 103 x 63 mm, verso with imprint of ‘F.H. Dufty, Photographer, Levuka, Fiji’, and contemporary inscription in ink: ‘Tokalau [sic] Woman, Line Islands’; both the albumen print and mount are in fine condition. Francis Herbert Dufty was an English-born photographer who arrived in Fiji in May 1871, having …

  • Two photographs of Kanak people, New Caledonia, circa 1875

    # 20351

    HUGHAN, Allan (1834-1883)

    Two photographs of Kanak people, New Caledonia, circa 1875

    I. Albumen print photograph, 155 x 210 mm, inscribed in the negative at bottom right ‘Hughan’, laid down on its original album page of thick card, the lower margin with contemporary caption in ink: ‘Indigènes de l’ile des Pins, Nlle. Calédonie’; the albumen print has slight loss of contrast, but is otherwise in very good condition. …

  • Papuan Gulf carved wooden figure, circa 1920.

    # 19290

    BUTCHER, Benjamin Thomas (1877-1973)

    Papuan Gulf carved wooden figure, circa 1920.

    [London? : London Missionary Society?, n.d]. Photographic glass magic lantern slide, 82 x 82 mm, original manuscript caption to paper border ‘Curios Papua Butcher’; in very good condition. This important photograph of a Papuan Gulf painted wooden figure with grass fibre tassels was taken by Benjamin Thomas Butcher (1877-1973), who worked as a medical missionary …

  • Woman wearing a fish dance ceremonial costume, Anetan district, Nauru, circa 1920.

    # 20113

    RHONE, Rosamund Dobson (attributed)

    Woman wearing a fish dance ceremonial costume, Anetan district, Nauru, circa 1920.

    Silver gelatin print photograph, 160 x 110 mm, inscribed by the photographer in the negative: Eraidi, Anetan (identifying the woman on the left) and Depairoge, Anetan (naming the young boy); verso with contemporary inscription in ink repeating the personal names of the subjects and with an added note (in pencil) that the little boy is deaf …

  • West Australian Aborigines 1883

    # 18228

    Photographers unknown.

    West Australian Aborigines 1883

    [Title from caption on mount]. Four albumen print photographs, each in carte de visite format (three are 90 x 60 mm; one 85 x 55 mm), mounted recto of a leaf of thick card removed from a nineteenth century album; inscribed in ink at centre of mount ‘West Australian Aborigines 1883’; the album owner decorated …

  • A German plantation owner's wife with native servants and horses, Neu-Mecklenburg (New Ireland), circa 1910

    # 18043

    Photographer unknown.

    A German plantation owner’s wife with native servants and horses, Neu-Mecklenburg (New Ireland), circa 1910

    Large format photographic magic lantern glass slide, 90 x 120 mm, the mount with paper label bearing contemporary manuscript caption in German ‘Matantetuk, Westküste v. Neu-Mecklenburg (Pferde)’ and the imprint of the Bavarian magic lantern firm Lichtbild-Anstalt G. Bachschmid, Kempten-Allgäu; in superb condition. This photograph, showing a scene on a copra plantation on the west …

  • Portrait of Gomenna, holding a gourd jar, New Caledonia, circa 1875

    # 16636

    DUFTY, Edward Henry (1850-1905); DUFTY, Walter Frederick (1854-1919)

    Portrait of Gomenna, holding a gourd jar, New Caledonia, circa 1875

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 105 x 65 mm (mount); the albumen print is in very good condition with excellent tonal range, a couple of tiny spots of foxing; the mount is fine. Although this photograph is not inscribed, the title and attribution are derived from the inscriptions on a photograph with the …

  • Photographic portrait of two young Kanak women in traditional dress, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    # 16644

    HUGHAN, Allan (1834-1883) (attributed)

    Photographic portrait of two young Kanak women in traditional dress, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 105 x 65 mm (mount); the print with some light foxing, the mount fine. This photograph of two unidentified young Kanak women was taken in the Noumea studio of Allan Hughan between 1875 and 1880. This attribution is based on the distinctive backdrop, which appears in other portraits …

  • Photographic portrait of two Kanak men holding spears and clubs, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    # 16642

    DUFTY, E.H. (Edward Henry), 1850-1905 (attributed)

    Photographic portrait of two Kanak men holding spears and clubs, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 105 x 65 mm (mount); the albumen print in very good condition, with slight loss of contrast; else in fine condition with good tonal range. This photograph of two unidentified young Kanak men was almost certainly taken in the Noumea studio of E.H. Dufty between 1875 and 1880. …

  • Flute players, Ambrym, New Hebrides, circa 1890

    # 13717

    LINDT, J.W. 1845-1926 (attributed)

    Flute players, Ambrym, New Hebrides, circa 1890

    Silver albumen print, cabinet card format, 105 x 165 mm, inscribed in the negative “No. 59 Ambrym, New Hebrides”; recto of mount embossed in gilt “Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”; verso blank; the albumen print is in fine condition with excellent tonal range. A rare image capturing a performance by …

  • Group of male dancers, northern Caroline Islands, circa 1910.

    # 17803

    Photographer unknown.

    Group of male dancers, northern Caroline Islands, circa 1910.

    Bromide print photograph, 85 x 113 mm, verso inscribed in pencil by the unknown photographer ‘N. Carolinen. Männer – Sitztänzer’ (=’Men – sitting dancers’); in fine condition, and with great detail when enlarged. This photograph of young male performers was taken towards the end of the German colonial administration of the Carolines, possibly on Yap or in the Ulithi …

  • The Narrinyeri : An account of the tribes of South Australian Aborigines inhabiting the Country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the Lower Part of the River Murray: their Manners and Customs, also an Account of the Mission at Port Macleay. 

    # 16917

    TAPLIN, George, Rev. (1831-1879)

    The Narrinyeri : An account of the tribes of South Australian Aborigines inhabiting the Country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the Lower Part of the River Murray: their Manners and Customs, also an Account of the Mission at Port Macleay. 

    Adelaide : J.T. Shawyer, Printer, 1874. Octavo, original flushcut limp cloth (somewhat sunned) with printed title label to front (loss to top left corner of label), front pastedown with bookplate of John Calaby, frontispiece tipped-in albumen print photograph with montage of head-and-shoulder portraits of identified Narrinyeri (Ngarrindjeri) men and women by Townsend Duryea, pp. iv, [ii], …

  • Photographic portrait of three Kanak women, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    # 16641

    DUFTY, Edward Henry (1850-1905)

    Photographic portrait of three Kanak women, New Caledonia, late 1870s

    Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 105 x 65 mm (mount), verso with studio imprint of ‘E. H. Dufty, photographer, Noumea, Nouvelle Caledonie’; the albumen print is slightly faded, the mount with some pale foxing. Edward Henry Dufty (1850-1905), the son of Bath photographer Francis Dufty and his wife Martha (née Stow), left England …

  • An important archive of photographs of Aboriginal subjects by police photographer W.T. Lingwood Smith, South Australia and Central Australia, circa 1900.

    # 15021

    LINGWOOD SMITH, William Thomas, 1860-1933

    An important archive of photographs of Aboriginal subjects by police photographer W.T. Lingwood Smith, South Australia and Central Australia, circa 1900.

    William Thomas Lingwood Smith was a Detective Photographer in the South Australian Police Force from 1888 until his retirement in 1922. As early as 1894 he also pioneered fingerprinting in Australia, becoming an expert in the Criminal Investigation Branch of the South Australian Police Department. The quality of his little-known, non-commercial photographic portraits of indigenous people …

  • Photographic portrait of an Aboriginal elder, Murray River, South Australia, circa 1920

    # 15037

    SOUTH AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT PHOTOGRAPHER

    Photographic portrait of an Aboriginal elder, Murray River, South Australia, circa 1920

    Gelatin silver photograph, 150 x 103 mm, verso with contemporary inscription in pencil ‘River Murray Tribe. Govt. Photog.’; in fine condition (the tiny white scratch in the upper section is in the negative).

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