IDNO

LS.49253.WCR

Description

Full-length portrait of two women wearing head scarfs, wrap round cloths, neck ornaments, ivory bracelets, and the woman on the left wears two large ivory anklets. In the background are plantain? plants. [JD 7/11/2008]

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.

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 7/11/2008]

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 7/11/2008]

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]

Facebook Publication: Image published in 'Igbo Monitor (Abianomume II)', 11 April 2023and captioned: "In terms of the origin of scarf wearing in our African societies, it is one of the many foreign cultural phenomena we have internalised due to conversion to Middle Eastern and European religions namely Islam & Christianity. As far back as the Middle Ages in Europe, the church decreed that women must cover their heads before leaving home.
In our own culture, women took pride in beautifying their hair by braiding and decorating it into elaborate styles. The style that our forebears adopted is depicted in this photograph.
You might dismiss it as not being cool but that is a matter of perspective. If Beyoncé and other popular western women begin to tie headscarves like our ichafu style or if European fashion houses copy it and popularise it, you’ll suddenly fall in love with it same way you fell in love with pidgin as soon as BBC created BBC Pidgin..." [Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=568729032026507&set=pb.100066682449724.-2207520000.&type=3, JD 10/07/2023]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/11/2008]