IDNO

P.99756.VH

Description

F.H. Dufty photograph of most of Theodor Kleinschmidt’s sketch of Nasigadrodro, a kai Namataku chief of Nasaucoko in 1877, dressed in full war or ceremonial dress, with his face painted. He has an itaubebatinivuaka boar tusk pendant at his throat, and three qato or lavei bracelets made from sici or trochus shells above his left elbow. Round his waist is a malo loincloth trailed by a long maloyara or train of fringed white barkcloth, the inner part of which is bound up in a big bow. High up under his ribs is girded a fringed white barkcloth sash, equivalent to a challenging malowala waistband. His heavy rootstock war club rests over his right shoulder.
1877. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Physical Condition: Print mounted onto card.

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Nasigadrodro, a kai Namataku chief of Nasaucoko

Photographer

Kleinschmidt, Theodor [Original Artist]; Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1877

Collection Name

von Hügel Collection

Source

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.99725.VH to P.99758.VH were in the belted folder now numbered C539/1/. This was formerly kept in paper archive Large Box G; VH1/4/5. It has now been transferred to the photo archive. The lists describing the contents of this box have been returned to the Paper Archive.

Biographical Information: Theodor Kleinschmidt (6 March 1834, Wolfhagen – 10 April 1881, Utuaia, Bismarck Archipelago) was a German trader, explorer and naturalist.
Kleinschmidt emigrated to the United States in 1843, and started a business in Saint Louis (Missouri). After going bankrupt he left for Australia then on to Fiji to flee his creditors. But his trade with the natives was not brilliant, in particular because of the economic crisis of 1874. The Museum Godeffroy of Hamburg then offered him work to collect natural history specimens, fauna and flora, in the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides, territories largely unexplored hitherto. He was assassinated by natives in 1881. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Kleinschmidt, JD 18/2/2014]

Bibliographical Reference: (For further details, identity, etc, see Kleinschmidt, T. 1879. “Reisen auf den Viti-Inseln”. J. Mus. Godeffroy, 249-283. - translated into English in Domodomo 2(4), 1981, 146-191). [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 9/1/2012]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 4/9/2003]