Album with 67 Early Original Photographs (Gelatin Silver photos and Cyanotypes) of French Sudan, Showing Hombori (French Military Post, Hombori Mountains, Native Village), Timbuktu, Bourem, Bamba, “Le Mage” Niger River Steamer, Portraits of Fula, Songhai, Tukulor, Ikelan, Tuareg, Moor and Bambara People, “Notables de Tombouctou,” Family of a Local Chief, Scenes with Native Soldiers Paying Honours to the Flag, Public Celebration during the 14th of July 1901, &c. Ca. 1901-3.

Oblong Folio album ca. 22x32 cm (8 ¾ x 12 ½ in). 49 album paper leaves. With 51 gelatin silver photos (mostly mounted in corners, several pasted on), including 40 larger images from ca. 12x18 cm (4 ¾ x 7 in) to ca. 12x15 cm (4 ¾ x 6 in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 8x11,5 cm (3 x 4 ½ in) to ca. 5x8 cm (2 x 3 ¼ in). With sixteen cyanotypes (mounted in corners or pasted on), from ca. 12x17 cm (4 ¾ x 6 ¾ in) to ca. 8x10 cm (3x4 in). All but half a dozen photos with period pencil or ink captions in French on recto or verso; several photos are also dated 1901, 1902 or 1903. One leaf with a period pencil drawing of a naval cruiser.

Period style brown full morocco binding; spine with raised bands; spine and both boards with gilt-tooled decorative borders; all edges gilt. Album leaves slightly age-toned, with occasional stains; several leaves with minor tears or losses on extremities not affecting images, a few photos mildly faded, or with minor creases, but overall a very good album with historically important rare photos.

Historically significant extensive collection of early vernacular photos of French Sudan, from Timbuktu to the Niger River community of Bourem and the frontier village of Hombori (all in modern-day Mali). The images, which include gelatin silver photos and cyanotypes, were evidently taken or collected by a French military officer who served in the region in the early 1900s. The album opens with a portrait of one “Lt. de B.” mounted on a camel – likely, an image of the album’s compiler. Another two photos (identical) depict the same officer and a group of native cavalry soldiers leaving for “une tournée à Doumau carrierés de marbre” from Hombori.

Most photos in the collection (about twenty identified images) show the Hombori village and environs, where a French military post was established at the time. The photos include views of the post and the village taken from the nearby Hombori Mountains and the interior of the post with the same mountains in the background, warehouses, native thatched-roof houses and other structures. There are also Hombori scenes with a detachment of native soldiers and musicians “paying honours to the flag,” a group of native women and girls, watering a local vegetable field; public entertainment during the celebration of the 14th of July in 1901, an outdoor kitchen, people playing tam tam and dancing, resting on rocks near the village, &c.

Several photos of Timbuktu show a square with “case du colonel” in the left, the city skyline with Sankore Mosque in the foreground, Tuaregs on a city market, native boats in the Kabara village (a Niger River port for Timbuktu), &c. There are also views of the Niger River communities of Bourem and Bamba (camp of the tirailleurs, exterior walls of the post), “Le Mage” steamer and a native boat on the Niger, a scene of public prayer, captioned “Ramadan – le G[ran]d. Salam,” an approaching sand storm, a group of domesticated ostriches, &c.

Beautiful ethnographic photos include over a dozen close-up portraits of native people from several groups (Fula (“Peulh”), Songhai, Tukulor (“Toucouleur”), Ikelan (“Bella”), Tuareg, Moor (“Achmed Salem, Maure”) and Bambara), detailing on their hairstyles, clothes and jewellery. There are also portraits of “notables de Tombouctou,” “la famille de Saba Ahmed,” “les reines actuelles de Hombori,” “famille de Bakari Maiza, chef de [… ?],” and others.

Overall a historically significant collection of early rare original photos of people and sites from Timbuktu and the frontier of the French Sudan.