Photographs Of Sketches Of Solomon Islands, Drawn Aboard HMS “Emerald”
c1881. Two albumen paper photographs, captions in image, 18.5 x 23.7cm (each). Minor crinkles. Caption in one image reads “Photographed from sketches by Mr Hay, HMS Emerald. Excelsior Photo Company, 78 King Street, Sydney.” Mr. Hay, who is likely to have produced the drawings, was the second lieutenant aboard the Emerald. These photographs show drawings of villages, mountain landscapes and indigenous Solomon Islands people. It includes one drawing captioned “attack on Raita, Florida Islands” and shows a torched village. In December 1880 the HMS Emerald was under Captain William Maxwell, under orders to find the murderers of five men who were on an earlier mission in the Solomon Islands aboard the HMS Sandfly. “A two month operation followed where the crew moved between the Islands in search of the guilty parties, destroying villages as they found them.” Ref: NLNZ; The Sydney Daily Telegraph, 18.2.1881.
Item #CL199-41
Price (AUD): $1,100.00 other currencies