'Somali Female Stick-Gatherer'. Photographer: Unknown

T.11308/12

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The record is made up of 1 albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print. It was created in Mid 1870s. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

About this record

Content

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’

Extent and format

1 albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

It is part of

'An Account of the British Settlement of Aden in Arabia', compiled by Captain F.M. Hunter

15 images

Ref: T.11308

Physical characteristics

Dimensions:

87 x 55 mm [portrait]

Format:

1 albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print pasted to backing paper and mounted between pp. 130-31

Materials:

Silver printing-out paper, albumen Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

Condition:

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 Method of printing photographs using an emulsion of salt and egg white (albumen). print

Written in

English in Latin script

Type

Photograph

Archive information for this record

Original held at: British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity.
Access conditions: Unrestricted
Archive reference: T.11308/12
Date(s): Mid 1870s (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects: Ethnographic heritage
Places: Aden
People & organisations: Frederick Mercer Hunter

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'Somali Female Stick-Gatherer'. Photographer: Unknown, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, T.11308/12, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/mirador/81055/vdc_100023400730.0x000004> [accessed 26 March 2025]

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