Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
File
Title
Box 22: Photo album: Bermuda
Date(s)
- 1900 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
"Excellent vernacular photograph album with over eighty images capturing life, scenery, and architecture on a trip through turn-of-the-century Bermuda. [Various locations in Bermuda.] February 1900. [40]pp., largely two gelatin silver photographs per page, plus a handful of loose photographs. Contemporary leather album...A fascinating photographic record of turn-of-the-century Bermuda, with contemporary manuscript captions beneath most photographs. The first page is titled in manuscript, 'Bermuda February 1900.' The first few photographs show the open-sea voyage to the island, with the majority of the remainder of the album devoted to the port, people, buildings, landscape, and landmarks ranging acrosse the entirey of Bermuda - from Ireland Island, around the western end to South Shore Park, past Bel Terre, Hamilton, and Spanish Point, all the way to the eastern extreme at St. Georges Island. The photos feature various street views (one along Cedar Avenue), royal palms, a banana tree, several ships at port including the H.M.S. Terror (not the famed Franklin expedition ship but a later British gunboat), a screw palm, the 'Oldest church on the Islands,' a rubber tree, a few views in various parks, a mahogany tree, two of the governor's bodyguards, the 'Entrance to the Bishop's Palace,' rock quarries, a 'Birdseye view of Hamilton,' various homes, a 'Birdseye view from Bel Terre,' the shopping district in St. Georges, 'Fortifications on Ireland Island,' and much more. Perhaps the most interesting photograph shows a native man playing a banjo on the street, accompanied by a small native child playing tambourine. The same lady appears in several of the photographs, which are presumably taken by her traveling companion. The photos begin with the travelers' arrival on the island and ends with their departure. One of the photos towards the end of the album reads, 'Last view of the land of the lily and the rose.' An excellent collection of vernacular photography from a period in Bermuda's history not often seen in pictures." -William Reese Company