Studio portrait of Samoan London Missionary Society pastor and tutor Saanga and his family, (Apia?) 1906.

Gelatin silver print photograph, cabinet card format, 185 x 135 mm (mount); original studio mount (without photographer’s imprint); verso with Saanga’s own inscription in ink identifying the sitters as Saanga, Madeline, Freddy, Sose, Rarotonga, Rita, Edward, and beneath this ‘With Saanga’s kind regards. June 12 ’06‘; a slightly later ownership inscription in pencil at the top edge reads ‘D. E. Newell’; the print is in excellent condition; the mount has some mild corner wear, but is otherwise also very well preserved.

After receiving his earliest theological training in Samoa from LMS missionary James Edward Newell (1852-1910), Saanga went on to become the first Samoan to train as a missionary in England. After his return to Samoa, he was stationed at Malua, where he served as a pastor and as the senior native tutor. In May 1904 he was appointed the first General Secretary of the newly created Samoa Christian Endeavour Union, of which Rev. J. E. Newell was elected the first president.

Newell had lived in Samoa for decades, and was an expert in Samoan law and customs. He ultimately also became a key figure in political negotiations between Samoa and the contending colonial powers, Britain, Germany and the United States, in which he acted as both an interpreter and mediator.

We believe there are two possible scenarios that would explain why this beautiful portrait of Saanga and his family bears the ownership signature of D. E. Newell; the more likely one is that this particular relative visited Rev. J. E. Newell in Samoa during 1906, and that Saanga presented them with the photograph at that time. The more improbable scenario, given that Saanga does not explicitly name his mentor in his inscription – which we would have expected him to – is that the photograph was presented to Rev. Newell, and that after his death in 1910, it found its way back to family in England among the missionary’s personal effects.