IDNO

N.34988.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.2058.ACH1: “Phonograph, Hula.” [Typed text]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate image LS.89110.TC1: “Voice-testing 1.30 a,b. Singing to phonograph.” [manuscript in ink]

A group of children from Hula singing into a Edison phonograph so that ether Charles Seligmann? or Sidney Ray? can record the songs.
The children are sitting on the ground in a semicircle around the phonograph, with the lid of the phonograph in the foreground, and spectators sitting and standing in the background. [JD 12/04/2019]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Central Division; Southeast Coast; Vula'a; Hula [British New Guinea; Bulaa]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

?Charles Seligmann [later Seligman]; ?Sidney Ray

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

5 - 14 June 1898

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Glass negative

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The negative was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C102/35/ which was in a wooden box now marked C102/. The envelope (C102/35/) is re-housed in Neg. Env. Box 1. which is stored in Storage Box A in the Photo Archive room.

Related Collections: The Expedition's wax cylinder recordings are now cared for by the British Library, reference C80/816, https://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Ethnographic-wax-cylinders/025M-C0080X0816XX-0100V0. [JD 12/06/2018]

Related Image: This photograph is a close-up of the scene shown in N.34987.ACH2, with Charles Seligmann recording Hula songs. [A. Herle July 2019]

Publication: Image published on front cover of a Papua New Guinean newspaper (WANTOK), June 2019, and captioned: "Hula Jun 1898.
Dispela poto bilong Jun 1898 i soim ol pikinini meri long Hula i singsing na phonograph i katim singsing bilong ol long ol weks silinda. Kiostu nau bai ol tumbuna bilong ol i ken harim nek bilong ol. Lukim stori long pes 11. Poto Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology." [JD 15/08/2019]

Publication: Image published in 'Recording Kastom: Alfred Haddon’s Journals from his Expeditions to the Torres Strait and New Guinea, 1888–89, 1898–99', Edited by Anita Herle and Jude Philp (Sydney University Press), Fig 0.33, and captioned: "A group of children singing into the Edison Home Phonograph, recorded by Seligmann. Hula, BNG, 1898. MAA N.34988." [JD 06/03/2020]