IDNO

LS.26715.WHI

Description

On catalogue card: "N.W. Amazon. 175.17.
Capt. Whiffen (?) and native".

Captain Whiffen and a Trinidadian "bearer" standing outdoors, wearing similar "European" style clothing. Whiffen is wearing a hat, smoking a pipe, holding a stick and has a pistol holster and a knife in his belt. The other man is holding a ?knife and his clothing is ragged. [TC 09/06/1999]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

English; West Indian; Trinidadian

Named Person

Thomas William Whiffen

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

1908 - 1909

Collection Name

Whiffen CollectionTeaching Slide Collection

Source

Whiffen, Nöel H.

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Context: The man on the right is one of 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). West Indians came to the area as employees of the Peruvian Amazon Company, to supervise the gathering of wild rubber. [TC 09/06/1999]

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36161, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse with "Self and Bearer (Trinidadian)."
Photocopies of Whiffen prints at the RAI are held 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]

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]