IDNO

P.87255.VH

Description

“‘Harry the Jew’, NAVUA”.
“Harrie the Jew & his daughter at Navua”. [von Hügel’s? annotation]

Portrait of “the celebrated Harry”, or Harry Danford, alias “Harry the Jew”, one of the most notorious of the Fiji “old hands” or beachcombers. Harry Danford jumped ship in Fiji in 1827 or 1828 and gained notoriety for living for decades amongst the Kai Colo or Vitilevu highland bogeymen under the protection of Kuruduadua, the Tui Namosi, at Namosi in the southern highlands of Vitilevu, long before any other whitemen had penetrated the forbidding mountains. He later lived near the coast at Raiwaqa on the Navua river - the photograph is probably made outside his house there - Navua having been conquered by Tui Namosi. He is said to have been called “Harry the Jew” through his defrauding of Charlie Pickering, the most and most deservedly notorious of the Rewa beachcombers or indeed of any of the “old hands”, Harry selling him a watch that only worked when worn, and stopped when it was laid aside at night. Leading Pickering to blacken his name as an alleged member of “the tribe that killed Jesus”.
Dufty Brothers photograph, late 1870s? [Fergus Clunie, 26/7/2003]

The woman is probably wearing a lei of ylangylang flowers, which is scented, easy to get but does not last long. She is also holding a posy. [Information provided by Yvonne Te Ruki-Rangi-o-Tangaroa Underhill-Sem, Development Studies, University of Auckland, 18/09/2018]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Harry Danford

Photographer

Dufty Brothers, Levuka

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1875 - 1880

Collection Name

Von Hugel Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.87222.VH to P.87277.VH were found loose in the Museum’s paper archive envelope, VH1/4/7, which has now been re-numbered C512/.

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 23/12/2011]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Program One. [A Nadin, 2/7/2003]