A vintage photo album with thick paper-covered boards and cloth spine. The title, "Ngamiland, 1934", is neatly handwritten in ink at the top of the front panel.
The album contains 49 original photographs providing a pictorial record of a trip of over 1000 miles undertaken by the Rev. Neville Jones and his wife from Bulawayo (Southern Rhodesia) to Maun in Ngamiland (today Botswana's North-West District).
Bookplate of Neville Jones on the front paste down and Itinerary of Visit to Ngamiland, October, 1934 neatly laid down on front endpaper. The itinerary records the dates and distances between the various points of interest where the couple stopped along the route.
The photographs are captioned in ink, presumably in either the hand of Rev. or Mrs. Neville Jones.
Old institutional rubber stamp on front paste down indicating "Sold By Order/Queen Victoria Museum/P. O. Box 8006/Causeway, Zimbabwe".
A newspaper article about the trip, written by Mrs. Neville Jones, is pasted in at rear. It was published in The Bulawayo Chronicle and is dated Monday, December 10, 1934. The originals of the 6 photographs that appear in the article are in this album.
In the article, entitled "A Thousand Miles to Pay a Call", Mrs. Neville Jones describes their trip of 1,000 miles into the Kalahari Desert to visit the London Missionary Society station at Maun. It was right in the middle of this desert in the Botlele River where Mr. Neville Jones discovered a new and interesting Stone Age deposit. The journey is described as an uncomfortable adventure through a dry, flat country. Along the Maun road they came across a family of ostriches with twelve chicks and, after having chased away the parents, caught one to photograph. Two photos in this album illustrate the episode.
"Neville Jones (1880-1954) was a London Missionary Society cleric and archaeologist. Born in Britain, Jones was ordained in 1909 and was appointed a missionary first in Madagascar, and then at Hope Fountain near Bulawayo in 1912. His archaeological interests began to develop with his discovery of an important Early Stone Age site at the Mission the following year and he went on to play the leading role in the early development of Stone Age archaeology in Zimbabwe. He discovered then excavated at Bambata Cave in 1919 and returned there in 1929 in collaboration with A. I. Armstrong and at the invitation of the University of Cape Town and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was the first archaeologist to identify the Middle Stone Age in Zimbabwe, but also worked in South Africa, excavating at the key Iron Age site of Mapungubwe in 1933. In 1936 he was appointed Keeper of Prehistory of the National Museum of Southern Rhodesia and his collections formed the initial basis of its archaeological exhibits. He was largely responsible for the creation of the Southern Rhodesian Monuments Commission, as well as the author of the first overall surveys of Zimbabwean prehistory (1926 & 1949). He served as President of the South African Archaeological Society 1953-54." - from www.britishmuseum.org
Some of the books written by Jones are:
The Stone Age in Rhodesia (1926)
My Friend Kumalo (1944)
The Prehistory of Southern Rhodesia (1949)
Guide to the Zimbabwe Ruins (1950)
Rhodesian Genesis - The Story of the Early Days of Southern Rhodesia (1953)
The album is in very good condition despite missing one of the photos, there being now 49 instead of 50, but even the Sphinx is missing its nose.
- Binding Condition: Very Good
- Overall Condition: Very Good
- Size: 26 x 23cm
- Sold By: Rare Paper
- Contact Person: Armandt Marais
- Country: South Africa
- Email: [email protected]
- Telephone: 0741235861
- Preferred Payment Methods: EFT, Bank Deposit. For International Customers: Paypal with 6% surcharge, International Transfer
- Trade Associations: A. A. Approved
