PHOTOGRAPHS

73 photographs, all approximately 12 x7mm, sepia toned, all undated, some with pencil captions on the back in the same hand but the photographer is not identified, others with numbers. The photographs are very lucid and in good condition. The captioned photographs cover the area from Natal through to Eastern Transvaal and depict typical war scenes – crossing spruits, cooking breakfast, feeding horses, camping in the veld, a few battle scenes, pulling cannons across spruits. The name of the photographer is unknown.

19 photographs without captions.

41 with pencil captions on the back which include the following:

View of Badfontein valley from Schoemans Nek side K/199
Dutch reformed Church in Carolina 370
Major Burnley; Captain H. M.Smith; Lieut A.G.Haig 368
General J.D. Van Opperman's grave at Bankop 385
Pompom crossing Komati River Bridge K/190
The Zulu Indaba at Paulpieterburg 2493
12 for crossing the Boschmans's Spruit Carolina 4028
Bemba's Kop from Rooi Kop 2 BronkhortSpruit Station entrained for Middelburg 628
A Boer family and belongings taken prisoner K/201 Putting out a veld fire at Elandskop K/204 Pompom crossing Boschman's Spruit Carolina 4026
The bivouac - bed complete 364
On the march the invisibility of the pompom 628
Roughing it – no baggage -cooking a sheep on the embers 375
'Feed Bob – my strong chief figure – Realization 387 Forage store at Bankop 4689
12 p. in position Rooikop Breakfast cooked on a wood fire after a night march.

With the invention of the half-tone process in the 1880s came the ability to reproduce photographs directly in print media. Fast on the heels of this printing revolution, in 1888, came the launch of Kodak's box camera, which used rolled paper film, and made the art of photography accessible (at a price) to all. Specifically aimed at the amateur market, Kodak's cameras meant that at the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 many soldiers possessed cameras and used them freely at any opportunity. Coupled with a large number of professional photographers, commissioned by specialist magazines such [as]Black and White Budget or Navy and Army Illustrated, the number of cameras in that theatre of war means that there are today many more photographs from the Anglo-Boer War than from the Anglo-Zulu War of just twenty years earlier. Indeed, the sheer number of photographers unfortunately means that many of their names are sadly now lost to history. Importantly, however, the reproduction of their photographs in print means that the historic images they took have fortunately survived. http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol161sm.html