Russell Hamilton postcards
name: label: Collector
content: Hamilton, Russell
place: label: Place
content: Africa
label: Place
content: Seychelles
label: Place
content: Madagascar
label: Place
content: Mauritius
creator: label: Collector
content: Hamilton, Russell
setName: label: See more items in
content: Russell Hamilton postcards
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Russell Hamilton was born in England around 1880.  He became an officer in the British Merchant Navy and around 1900 married Ethel Mary Hadwen. Throughout Russell's voyages to Africa, Australia, China, Japan and elsewhere he gathered picture postcards and exotic curios to bring back to his wife and son, Oliver, born in 1906.

Russell likely contracted tuberculosis by 1903 and for the rest of his life suffered from the effects.  By the end of 1908 the tuberculosis had progressed to the point that the Merchant Navy sent him to recuperate in Canada.  Between extended stays in a sanatorium he worked at various jobs and fathered a daughter in May 1911. Russell died in a sanitarium from the effects of tuberculosis around 1913.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 49 Postcards (black & white, 9 x 14 cm.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: between 1900 and 1909
container: label: Container
content: Volume 1
custodhist: label: Custodial History note
content: Collected by the English petty officer Russell Hamilton (d.1911) during his voyages made prior to 1909, likely for the British Merchant Marines. Hamilton gave these postcards as souvenirs to his wife, Ethel Mary, neé Hadwen, who left them to her daughter, Mary Shepherd Slusser.   Donated by Mary Shephard Slusser as part of a larger collection of postcards to the Freer-Sackler Art Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transferred to the National Museum of African Art, 2002.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: EEPA.2003-001
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Postcards
label: Type
content: Picture postcards
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Arranged in 3 series by location:

Series 1: Madagascar, EEPA 2003-001-0001 to 

Series 2: Mauritius

Series 3: Seychelles
processinfo: label: Description note
content: All titles are taken directly from the postcards
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Picture postcards
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection includes 49 postcards collected by the English petty officer Russell Hamilton (d.1911) during his voyages made prior to 1909, likely for the British Merchant Marines.  The postcards are from Madagascar, Mauitius and Seychelles.  Among the twenty-seven postcards from Madagascar (dating 1900-1905) are images showing Betsimisarka women weaving a mat and women pounding rice and a Merina family wearing lambas. Several postcards were taken in and around Antsiranana, formerly Diégo Suarez, and late 19th century European and Indian inspired dress. The most prominent of the eleven Seychelles postcard images is one of King Prempeh of Ashanti and his followers as political prisoners in Mahé. Also included are two studio portraits published by S. Ohasi, which show the sitters in front of a classical landscape backdrop imported from Europe. The remaining eleven postcards are mostly of landscapes. One is a street scene from Port Louis.