photographic print(black and white)
- Museum number
- Oc,B95.1
- Description
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Photograph (black and white); of Dick, an Aboriginal Australian man, posing in profile in front of a neutral studio backdrop; he has scarification.
Salted paper print (?)
- Production date
- 1860s (?)
- Dimensions
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Height: 14.60 centimetres (image)
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Height: 31.30 centimetres (mount)
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Width: 11.10 centimetres (image)
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Width: 24 centimetres (mount)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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According to the Illustrated London News 8 October 1853, this man and another in image Oc,B95.2, had 'lately arrived in England from Evans Bay, Cape York'. One man was named Boyguda, and the other Garicha, and both spoke the Gudang language. They had gone aboard a ship, the Scotia, in Cape York, but lost their canoes whilst on board the ship, so travelled to Bombay and on to England, arriving about 11 May 1853. The Morning Chronicle 20 June 1850, noted that Mr William Thomson, FLS had exhibited the 'photographic likenesses' of 'two natives of Cape York'. The Aberdeen Herald 18 June 1853 reported on a meeting of the Ethnological Society of London, where Mr (Oswald) Brierly, late of HMS Rattlesnake was present and noted that he had seen one or both of these men whilst on the Rattlesnake. One man, 'Gurich' recognised Brierley as 'an old friend' in a hearty manner and Mr Brierly exhibited some of their implements used in daily life. The Morning Post 4 January 1854 described the portraits of the Cape York men 'taken by Mr F W Berger' which attracted the attention of the Queen and Prince Albert when visiting an exhibition at the Photographic Society, London in early 1854.
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Date: The date is assigned through the date written on another photograph in the collection, Oc,B95.2, which appears to have been taken at the same time. On that image "1861" is written on the mount in pencil, but if it is a carbon print, then it would date after 1864, when the carbon print was invented.
Related image: this same man appears in Oc,B95.1
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The box this photograph was in, Box 95, had the name "Huxley" on it, presumably referring to Thomas Henry Huxley, but it is unclear in what manner, if any, he was associated with the photographs in this box.
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Context: There is some evidence that this image and the other two photographs of Australians from Cape York (Oc-B95-2 and 3) are related to the Ethnological Society of London and Roger Gordon Latham. There is an inscription on Oc-B95-3 with the initials" R. G. Latham". See commentary in Oc-B95-2 for more.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- The mount has surface losses on the front and back that indicate that it was previously mounted on something else.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc,B95.1