Diego Suarez and Northern Madagascar
Subtitle: photograph album
Published: 1904
Language: eng
Description: Photograph album of Northern Madagascar, Taken by a French Colonial Officer, showing Diego-Suarez (Antisiranana), Cap Diego Military Camp (with the Scenes of Destruction after the 1904 Cyclone), Celebration of the 14th of July and Decauville Railway Station in Sakaramy, Lakes and Waterfalls of the Amber Forest (now a National Park), and Numerous Portraits of the Local People from Different Ethnic Groups such as Antemoro, Antaukara, Betsileo, Hora, Betanimena, “nomad Antaimoro,” and others.
Notes: Provisional cataloging from description supplied by vendor.

50 stiff card leaves, with100  mounted original gelatin silver photographs, each ca. 11, 5 x16,5 cm. All photos with period manuscript brown ink captions in French on the mounts.

The photographs show northern Madagascar, mostly Diego-Suarez (Antsiranana since1975) and environs. Annexed by France in 1885, Diego-Suarez saw the construction of a French naval base and coaling station andserved as a French foothold in northern Madagascar; before just over a decade later the whole country became a French colony (1897). The album’s compiler was one Charles Bertin, a French officer stationed near Diego-Suarez, possibly at the French militarybase in Cap Diego. The “Guide-Annuaire de Madagascar et dépendances” for 1909-1910 (Tananarive, 1910)  listed Charles Bertin as a “cantinier [manager of a military canteen] au camp d’Ambre” in the Diego-Suarez province (p. 171). The first photo in the album is a portrait of Bertin sitting with a Diego-Suarez“L’Impartial” newspaper, the photo is humorously captioned “Sa Majesté Charles 1er de Bertin.” Also includes 10 views of the Cap Diego military station, featuring the “old hospital,” “cases militaires,” “camp malgache,” and a small steamer at the Cap Diego wharf; five photos taken after the “cyclone of December 15th, 1904,” show the destruction of military buildings, including a hospital.

Several photos depict Diego-Suarez (sometimes captioned “Antsirane”), the harbor and the road to Cap Diego, Malagasy and European quarters, Hospital point, “maison européenne,” “ville européenne,” and French steamer “Melbourne” on the raid in Diego-Suarez;   two views of the recently completed Sakaramy station of the Diego-Suarez Decauville railway (served Antsirane-Sakaramy, built in 1900-04), depicting passengers’ and merchant quarters. Four photos (two of them are identical) present lively scenes of the 14th of July public celebration in Sakaramy; also incldues photos of a “batterie de montagne en manoeuvre” and a view of a European house “dans la brousse” (“in the bush”). Over 20 photos depict the surrounding forest, including the famous Forêt d’Ambre, then the site of a French military camp, and now a Madagascar National Park (since 1958). The photos show the Forêt d’Ambre’s numerous waterfalls and streams, including the bed of the Grande Cascade after the cyclone of 15th December 1904, Lac Maudit, Grand Lac, Petit Lac, a logged forest patch (captioned “exploitation forestière”), etc.

Over 40 photos depict native people of Madagascar,including individual and group portraits of people from specified ethnic groups (Antemoro, Antaukara, Betsileo, Hora, Betanimenawomen from Tamatave/Toamasina, “nomad Antaimoro,” women from Île Sainte-Marie/Nosy Boraha), several portraits of Malagasy tirailleurs on French service and their wives, portraits of Malagasy families and children, mothers carrying their babies on theirbacks, a village chief in front of his house, rice grinders, men fishing in a stream, a woman doing laundry in a river, men building ahouse, a group of men during a “Sunday rest,” three photos of hairdo types, views of several native villages and a market, etc

Two photos show the scenes of traditional kabary “public speeches,” one performed “in honour of the district chief” and the other one –the collection of taxes (locals stand in a circle as a French officer walks around).

Period maroon full morocco with moiré endpapers and gilt-tooled decorations on spine and covers.