IDNO

LS.26712.WHI

Description

On catalogue card: "N.W. Amazon. 175.17.
Bridge made of trunk of small tree".

View of bridge across a stream, "the trunk of a small tree". A South American Indian man and a woman are crossing the bridge, carrying trunks or boxes on their backs. The man is wearing what appears to be "European" style clothing. [TC 09/06/1999]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

South American Indian; ?European

Named Person

Photographer

Whiffen, Thomas William

Collector / Expedition

Date

1908 - 1909

Collection Name

Whiffen CollectionTeaching Slide Collection

Source

Whiffen, Nöel H.

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36177, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse as "Carrying baggage across a stream."
Photocopies of Whiffen prints at the RAI are in the UCMAA archive, reference W19/1/3. See Whiffen Collection record for further details on RAI collection. [TC 09/06/1999, updated JD 02/10/2019]

The people depicted are probably Whiffen’s "carriers", as described in Whiffen, T. W., 1915 (pp. 2-4). He explains that at the beginning of his expedition he "collected eight Indian carriers, two half-castes, and eight "rationales", or semi-civilised Indians, armed with Winchesters, together with three Indian women, wives of three of the rationales" (ibid: 3).

Steward (1963: 754) notes that Witotoan bridges "consist of trees felled across a stream". The bridge in this image, then, would appear to be European in style.

Source: In MAA Correspondence Box 1934 is a letter from Noel Whiffen donating his "brother's collection of lantern slides" to the museum, on behalf of the Whiffen family. Louis Clarke replied. The gift is also noted in the annual report for that year in the list of accessions (UCMAA 1934: 3), which mentions that "the collection of lantern slides has also been increased by gifts from ... Mr N. H. Whiffen ... "
For full details see Whiffen Collection record. [TC 09/06/1999, updated, JD 02/10/2019]