IDNO

LS.49238.WCR

Description

Photograph illustrating disease.

Head and shoulders frontal portrait of an older woman with facial scarification and a tropical skin disease, possibly Yaws?, which causes skin lesions and in the late-stages, disintegration of the nose bones. [JD 6/11/2008]

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Niger River

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Crosse, William Henry (Dr., PMO)

Collector / Expedition

Royal Niger Company, 1886 - 1895

Date

circa 1890 - 1910

Collection Name

Crosse Collection

Source

?Robinson, Charles Henry (Rev, Canon)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

C159/ was formerly numbered 2 by T. Hoare. There are 29 lantern slides in the box.

The number in the other numbers field for this slide may correspond to the lists found in the box now numbered C161/ which suggest a location of Asia, (India, China, Japan) for this slide. The lists are now in Bay N/Shelf 3/Box 1/.

Place: This Place field was previously recorded as being "?Oceania; ?Europe; ?Americas; ?Australasia; ?Asia; ?Africa", but the lanternslide is part of a series that appears to be from West Africa, particularly Nigeria, Niger Delta, and Cameroon. This was confirmed by Len Pole, 28/10/2008. The Place field has been amended accordingly. [JD 5/11/2008]

Date: Based on the style of the men’s clothing in LS.49234., the series of photographs probably dates circa 1890 - 1910. The Date field has been amended accordingly. [JD 6/11/2008]

Context: Yaws is a chronic infection that affects mainly the skin, bone and cartilage.
- The disease occurs mainly in poor communities in warm, humid, tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
- The causative organism is a bacterium called Treponema pertenue, a subspecies of Treponema pallidum that causes venereal syphilis. However, yaws is a non-venereal infection.
There are two basic stages of yaws disease - early (infectious) and late (non-infectious):
- In early yaws, an initial papule develops at the site of entry of the causative organism. This papule is full of the organisms and may persist for 3-6 months followed by natural healing. Without treatment, this is followed by disseminated skin lesions over the body. Bone pain and bone lesions may also occur.
- Late yaws appears after five years of the initial infection and is characterized by disabling consequences of the nose, bones and palmar/plantar hyperkeratosis. [Source: World Health Organisation, http://www.who.int/neglected_diseases/diseases/yaws/en/index.html, JD 6/11/2008]

Collection Name: The Photographer and Collection Name field were previously unprovenanced, but matching this negative to the same series of other negatives, N.74244.ACH2 to N.74249.ACH2 and N.78251.ACH2 to N.78256.ACH2, and lanternslides, LS.82424 to LS.82491, it shows that the photographs were taken by William Henry Crosse, Principal Medical Officer, Royal Niger Company, 1886 - 1895. The Photographer and Collection Name fields have been amended accordingly. [JD 13/01/2014]

Source: The Source field was previously unprovenaced, but the photographs may have been donated to the MAA by Rev. Charles Henry Robinson, who published some of Crosse's photographs in the following publication. The Source field has been provisionally amended accordingly. [JD 13/01/2014]

Bibliographical Reference: Nigeria: Our Latest Protectorate,
By Charles Henry Robinson M.A, Canon Missioner of Ripon and Lecturer in Hausa in the University of Cambridge (London, Horace Marshall and Son, 1900), pp.v-vi
"I am indebted to the Rt. Hon. Sir Geo. Goldie for permission to use
several photographs taken in connection with the work of the Royal Niger Company, also to Dr. W. H. Crosse, for many years Medical Officer of the Company, for the loan of many photographs taken by himself, and to Miss C. M. Stiff, of Cheltenham, for preparing several drawings of native articles." [JD, 13/01/2014]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 5/11/2008]