Occupation of Mashonaland. Views by W. Ellerton Fry. N.p., 1891. Der Titel stammt vom Vorderdeckel des Albums, das Datum stammt vom Copyright-Schild am Innendeckel: "... Copyright and registered at Stationers' Hall,

London, England ... 20th October, 1891." Folio (47 x 30 cm). 154 Original-Photographien auf 41 starken Albumblättern, jedes Photo mit montierter gedruckter Beschriftung. Goldschnitt. Die Größe der Photos ist meist 14 x 19 cm, ausgenommen die 5 Panorama-Photos, welche 14 x 38 cm messen. Original-Halblederband (leicht berieben), vereinzelt am Rand etwas stockfleckig, ein schönes, dekoratives Album mit hervorragenden Photographien. One of approximately 12 albums believed to have been assembled, of Fry's self-published photograph album, which serves as a remarkable photographic record of British colonial ambitions. The carbon prints depict the landscape and events along the line of march of the Mashonaland Pioneer Column, a military force in the service of Cecil Rhodes and the British South Africa Company, whose aim was to annex Mashonaland and Matebeleland. Fry was this group's official photographer. [With:] Green morocco gilt 4to album (296 x 241mm.), containing cuttings from various newspaper reports on the Matabele Revolt, dated 1896-1907, mounted recto and verso on 19 stiff card mounts, one further newspaper cutting, and loosely inserted photograph on card mount. PROVENANCE: Lieutenant R. Beal (one of the officers in the handwritten list); given to Annie Beal: Annie Beal's ownership inscription to front free endpaper of Occupation, dated 1 June 1892, and with Beal's Certificate of Discharge from her occupation as a nurse aboard HMSCenturion, dated 31 October 1898, loosely inserted in album of newspaper cuttings; thence by descent. Eines von nur etwa 12 Exemplaren, die Fry zusammenstellte. Eine Raritä! Ein wundervolles Dokument afrikanischer Geschichte! – Enthalten sind die ersten Photographien der Ruinen von Zimbabwe, die ersten Aufnahmen von der Entstehung von Fort Salisbury, dem heutigen Harare, zahlreichen Aufnahmen der Gebiete zwischen Mafeking und dem heutigen Harare, zwischen Limpopo und Zambesi. Die Dokumentation zeigt aber auch zahlreiche Abbildungen von Einheimischen und ihren Dörfern, sie zeigt auch die Ausmaße des Kolonialtrupps sowie das Leben der Beteiligten. Looking for 'a few paying gold reefs' and with a concession granting him rights to minerals, Cecil J. Rhodes formed the British South Africa Company which sent its heavily guarded Pioneer Column north to exploit the land between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers in 1890. The Column, consisting of 192 prospective miners, with the famous hunter Frederick Courtney Selous as guide, and 500 troopers of the newly formed British South Africa Police Company, established a camp, Fort Salisbury, at the site of present day Harare. 'An album was produced of 154 of W. Ellerton Fry's original whole-plate photographs, which form a comprehensive record of the historic trek of the Pioneer column from Mafeking to Fort Salisbury in 1890.' William Ellerton Fry (British, 1846-1930) was born in Somerset and emigrated to South Africa in 1872. He worked briefly as a farmer, trader, and prospector, before taking a post as secretary and computer at the Royal Observatory in Cape Town. He held the post for nearly twenty years, eventually attaining the position of Assistant Astronomer Royal. When the Mashonaland Pioneer Column was being formed, Fry was was appointed the Chief of Survey Department and Official Photographer of the Pioneer Corps with the rank of Lieutenant. In addition to preparing a detailed map from the Macloustie River to Fort Salisbury, he took the first ever photographs of the ruins of the city Zimbabwe in August 1890.