'Somali Female Stick-Gatherer'. Photographer: Unknown

Title:

'Somali Female Stick-Gatherer'. Photographer: Unknown

Contributor:

Frederick Mercer Hunter (author)

Date:

1873/1877

Description:

Genre/Subject Matter:This full-length standing studio portrait of a woman is intended to demonstrate an ethnic, occupational and class ‘type’, in this case that of a Somali ‘stick-gatherer’. Although Frederick Mercer Hunter provides no description for stick-gatherers, the woman’s ragged clothing and pose may have been intended to demonstrate that she is what Hunter describes on p. 33 as a ‘low-born Somali or [negro] (Jarbarti)’who undertakes ‘scavengers’ work’.The woman, posed in a studio with rocks about her feet and carrying a long walking stick, appears bent over under the weight of the bundle of sticks she is carrying. A twisted rope binds the sticks together and forms a harness about her upper torso. The woman is blind or has an eye condition which has clouded her retinas.Inscriptions:In pencil, upper left corner adjacent to print: ‘12’1 albumen printDimensions:87 x 55 mm [portrait]Format:1 albumen print pasted to backing paper and mounted between pp. 130-31Materials:Silver printing-out paper, albumen printCondition:The print is unevenly hand-cut, with one surface adhesion of card in the upper left corner along the left-hand edge. Dark spotting and streaking throughout the upper half of the image originate in the printing process.Foliation:‘12’Process:Albumen print

Language:

English

Type:

Photograph

Type (Narrower):

Photographs

Type (Broader):

Image

Subject:

Ethnographic heritage

Geographic region:

Aden

Extent:

1 albumen print

Rights:

Public Domain

Identifier:

81055/vdc_100023400730.0x000004_ar
81055/vdc_100023400730.0x000004_en
T.11308/12

Is part of:

British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers

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