Madagaskar. Original-Fotografien und Tagebücher. Important Collection of Two Notebooks with Original Manuscripts & Ephemera Containing Accounts of Residence and Work in Northern Madagascar, Titled:] Journal de Madagascar. Extraits de lettres adressées a mère. 1er Février 1904 – 23 Février 1906 (10 Janvier 1904 – 17 Mars 1906 voyage compris). J. Logerais. With: [Folder with 69 Original Photographs of Mahajanga and Surroundings, Nosy Be, Portraits of the Queen of Ankatsepe and Her Court Women, Three Chiefs from the Comoros, Sakalava People, French Officers and Residents, and Others, Titled:] Madagascar. 1896-1909.?

Ca. 1904-1906, 1896-1909. Two Octavo notebooks. 120 and 69 lined leaves filled in manuscript (ink), the second notebook with over forty blank leaves. With over sixty additional leaves of ephemera (copies of letters, notes, sketches, a map of Madagascar with manuscript notes, theatre programmes et al.) pasted on to the leaves or loosely laid in. Original quarter cloth notebooks with light brown card boards. The folder consists of large folded loose leaves of paper ca. 36,5x23 cm (14 ? x 9 in) when folded. With 69 gelatin silver prints of various size, including forty-six large photos ca. 19x24,5 cm (7 ? x 9 ? in), sixteen photos ca. 12x17 cm (4 ? x 6 ? in) or slightly smaller, and seven photos ca. 9x12 cm (3 ? x 4 ? in). All images with period captions in pencil or ink on the mounts. Paper of the notebooks slightly age toned, one notebook slightly loose on hinges, several photos in the album slightly faded, otherwise a very good collection.? Important collection of original manuscripts, photographs and ephemera from the estate of doctor Jean Logerais, who was in charge of the hospital in Majunga (Mahajanga, northwest coast of Madagascar). Two notebooks from the collection contain early 20th century copies (the notebooks were compiled in 1910s) of 52 letters from Jean Logerais’ wife Juliette to her mother, written from Majunga (including four letters written on board the steamer “Otus” on the way to Madagascar) and covering the period of February 1904 – February 1906. The letters vividly and in great detail describe the Madagascar medical service, as well as life of its upper class French residents; an ink sketch in the text shows the plan of the doctor’s house. The main text is supplemented with a number of original manuscripts and ephemera, including a small map of Madagascar with manuscript comments about Majunga and Tananarive, pencil drawn portraits of a “delicieux enfant de choeur” and a young Malagasy woman (shown from the front and back), programms of two theatre perfomances in Majunga (an amateur one featuring Mme Logerais, and the one in the Théatre du Rova), an official letter to doctor Logerais from E. Staklin, a judicial officer in Majunga (with his official stamps), a brief essay on agriculture in Madagascar, a 10 c. Postal stamp “Madagascar et dependances,” and others. The folder contains over forty excellent large views and panoramas of Majunga and surroundings, including three panoramas taken from the sea and showing the buildings on the shore, the wharf, boats and steamers in water; two views of the Majunga raid; four general views of city taken from above; distant view of the Majunga wharf and the lighthouse; closer view of the wharf with a group of French colonial officers on the pier; four views of a part of the old wharf with Arab boats; fifteen views of Majunga streets, squares and buildings (Rue de Lacomt, Rue de l’Infanterie de Marine, Rue de Commerce, Rue de Rouve, Avenue Gillon with the old treasury; old Maison Garnier, Rue Amiral Piere with Maison Mounia – the place where the Logerais couple lived in 1904-1906, a part of Majunga with Maison Jeancler, city market, Mauries square, gendarmerie, and others); views of the Majunga environs (Ambrossi, Marongue River, town of Ambanja, native market, a swamp near Majunga, and others). Six smaller images dated 1897 depict the Nosy Be and Nosy Komba Islands (villages near Hell-Ville, and a portrait of a local family). Very interesting are seven portraits of the local royalty: the Queen of Ankatsepe (near Majunga), her niece and court women, including two images of the royal procession. The other images include beautiful large portraits of a Sakalava woman with a child, native men, three chiefs from the Comoros Islands in Majunga; two photos showing decoration of French officers by colonel Lamiable in Majunga in 1909; two photos of a wedding of French residents in Majunga, and others. Two photos show an Arab military camp and a hospital near Majunga – most likely, a part of the French invasion force in the course of the Franco-Hova Wars. The folder closes with a view of Logerais’ house in Majunga and a portrait of him being carried by native people on the way back from the hospital. Overall a beautiful and historically important collection of original materials on northern Madagascar shortly after it became a French colony (1897).