Album with Fifty-Six Original Gelatin Silver Photographs of British and German East Africa, Including Views of Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kampala, Tanga, Magila, Ripon Falls, Lake Victoria, Kabaka Lake, Portraits of Kikuyu, Kavirondo, Kamba People, &c. Ca. 1907.

Large Oblong Folio album ca. 26x33,5 cm (10 ¼ x 13 in). 13 stiff card album leaves. 56 mounted gelatin silver photos including fifteen large images ca. 15x21 cm (5 x 8 ½ in) and eight photos ca. 10,5x15 cm (4x6 in); the rest are ca. 6,5x10 cm (2 ½ x 4 in) and slightly smaller. All but ten photos with period manuscript ink or pencil captions on the mounts. Period dark brown quarter sheep with brown pebbled cloth boards; spine with gilt-tooled decorations; moiré endpapers. Overall a very good album with interesting strong photos.

This album contains photographs of local people and colonial establishments in British East Africa (present-day Kenya), Uganda (protectorate established in 1896) and German East Africa (present-day Tanzania). A large portion of the photographs are taken along the Uganda Railway from Mombasa, where the Railway began in 1896, to the terminus at Kisumu on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria, where it was completed in 1901. One image shows local people standing near a railway station, and another shows railway worker gangers gathering near a cart. Several photographs show an Indian Bazaar in Nairobi, likely started by a community of British Indian labourers who were brought to Kenya to complete the railway in the late 1890s. "Built during the Scramble for Africa, the Uganda Railway was the one genuinely strategic railway to be constructed in tropical Africa at that time. 2,498 workers died during its construction "(Wikipedia). Many of the images are ethnographic studies of the local peoples including portraits, groups standing in a row with women holding their young children, people working, native settlements and market scenes. One photograph shows Kikuyu Natives in Nairobi sorting coffee beans on the ground as a European supervisor watches. Several images show colonial buildings, including the Memorial Cathedral in Mombasa (the administrative centre of British East Africa until 1905), and a Missionary Society School in Uganda which was founded in 1895 to educate native chiefs’ sons. Also included are images of a Government House, and a U.M.C.A. (Universities' Mission to Central Africa?) House and Chapel in Tanga, Tanzania, which was the first establishment and administrative center of German East Africa. Overall, an excellent album showing local peoples and colonial establishments in British East Africa, Uganda and German East Africa.
List of photographs:

Wakamba Women, B.E.A.; Kikuyu Natives B.E.A.; Kisumu Beef Market; Kikuyu boy outside hut, Nairobi 1907; Uganda Railway Co. Steamers on Lake Victoria, Nyanza, 1907, Kisumu; Ripon Falls, Source of the Nile, Jinja, Uganda; Exterior of Mombasa Memorial Cathedral; River View, Magda, G.E. Africa; Indian Bazaar, Nairobi, B.E.A.; Indian Bazaar, Natives Shopping, Nairobi, B.E.A.; Namirembe Markey, Uganda; Kampala Fort, Uganda; Ripon Falls, Jinja, Uganda; Queen Victoria’s Statue, Nairobi B.E.A.; Canoe, Lake Victoria Nyanza; Mengo, Uganda, C.M.S. School for sons of chiefs in foreground; Scenery, French Mission, Nairobi, B.E.A.; Kikuyu Natives sorting coffee beans, French Mission, Nairobi B.E.A.; Kibwezi Natives, B.E. Africa; Kavirondo Native; Kikuyu Women going to market, B.E.A.; Kikuyu Group, B.E.A.; Kavirondo Native; Watching the train pan, Kibos, B.E.A.; Kisumu Market; Gangers, Uganda Railway, B.E.A.; Interior of Mombasa Memorial Cathedral; King’s Lake, Mengo, Uganda; Waterfall near Magila, G.E.A. (2 views); Bagamoyo Village, Magila, G.E.A.; Tanga Bay, G.E.A.; Street in Tanga, G.E.A.; U.M.C.A. Mission House and Chapel, Tanga, G.E.A.; Government House, Tanga G.E.A.; Bridge built by the late Padre Harrison, Magila, G.E.A.; Village, Magila, G.E.A.; River, Magila, G.E.A.; View, Magila, G.E.A.; Public Gardens, Tanga, G.E.A.; Native Street, Tanga, G.E.A. (2 views); Bismarck’s Monument, Tanga, G.E.A.; Kisumu Market, B.E.A. (2 views); Station on the Uganda Railway, B.E.A.