Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of Eritrea, album compiled approximately 1942

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Summary

Creators:
Fotocelere Coloniale
Abstract:
The album of 110 photographs taken by Fotocelere Coloniale between approximately 1935 and 1942 documents the roads built between Asmara, the newly-designated capitol of the Italian colony of Eritrea, and the country's other major cities as part of the infrastructure built by the fascist regime to bolster the growth of the manufacture of commodities such as buttons, cooking oil, pasta, construction materials, meat, tobacco, hide, and other household goods. Also included are 20 loose snapshots taken by an amateur photographer traveling in the region.
Extent:
1 Linear Feet (130 photographs and 1 booklet in 1 album)
Language:
Collection material is in English .

Background

Scope and content:

The album contains 110 gelatin silver photographs of Asmara, Eritrea and environs taken by Fotocelere Coloniale. They are accompanied by a six-page typewritten booklet, "Description of the Photographs Contained in the 'Album,'" housed in a blue-gray envelope adhered to the album's front paste-down, and which contains captions for the photographs. The first photographs, as delineated in the booklet, follow the road from the port of Massaua (Massawa) on the Red Sea to Asmara, the capital of Eritrea. Following several views of that city, the remainder of the album is devoted to the depiction of routes out of the capital to other locations in Eritrea including Decameré (Dekemhare) and Senafe to the southeast; south to Gondar (now in Ethiopia); northeast to Cheren (Keren); and south to Barentu. Both the photographs and the titles of the booklet's five sections, such as "Asmara-Gondar Road" and "Asmara-Cheran Road and Eritrean Low Plain," emphasize Eritrea's recently built roads, while sites along each route and their final destinations are also depicted. These city views emphasize the modern Italian-built city centers. Other infrastructure elements recently built by the Italian government, such as railways, bridges, and tunnels, are also shown.

While the emphasis of the photographs is on the modernization of the region, views of some ancient monuments are also included in the album. These include the Stele of Aksum which was erected in the fourth century as the grave marker of King Ezana, ruler of the Kingdom of Āksum, and taken to Rome in 1937 where it was erected on Porta Capena Square in front of the Ministry for Italian Africa. The stele was repatriated to Ethiopia in 1947, although due to transportation difficulties it did not reach the country until 2005 when it was then re-erected on its original site and finally unveiled in 2008. Also present are views of the palaces of Fasil Ghebbi, the seventeenth-century fortified compound in Gondar that was home to the Ethiopian emperor, Fasilides (1603-1667), and subsequent members of the Solomonic dynasty.

The smaller photographs in the album are hand-numbered 1-105 on the mounts. The five larger photographs, one of which precedes the photographs corresponding to each section of the booklet, are not listed in the booklet. They are unnumbered and have handwritten English captions on their lower borders.

A cut-down peacock blue envelope adhered to the back paste-down contains 20 small, deckle-edged snapshots of scenery and local life including roads, street scenes, and markets taken by an amateur photographer. Hand- or type-written English annotations on the versos of several photographs indicate the names of friends depicted, including Dick Bellamy, brother of the English silent film actor George Bellamy (d. 1944). Other annotations indicate areas where the party hunted near the Ethiopian border. Also included are village, street, and market scenes. Evidence from the captions ("English friend") and the pasted-in postmarked envelope (see below) suggest that the photographer was an American man who visited Africa or perhaps lived there for a time. Based on their format and deckled edges, these snapshots were likely taken in the 1940s.

The album's date is based on a related Fotocelere Coloniale publication, Life in Asmara and the Roads of Eritrea, 1942. The inclusion of snapshots depicting English and American persons further supports a compilation date falling after the British capture of Eritrea in 1941. The photographs contained in the album were taken between 1935 and 1942 as evidenced by the inclusion of photograph of the Stele of Aksum shown in situ before it was removed in 1937.

The album is string-bound with gold oilcloth covers; the front cover bears a small metal plate with an image of a giraffe. Gold foil labels on the front and back paste-downs and on the booklet read: Fotocelere Coloniale / Asmara. Both envelopes were added to the album well after its creation date. The gray envelope holding the booklet is addressed to a Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schneider in Wintersville (Ohio?) and is postmarked Pittsburgh, PA, 1971 December 16.

Based on their format and deckled edges, these snapshots were likely taken in the 1940s.

Arrangement

Arranged in a single series: Series I. Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of Eritrea, approximately 1942.

Biographical / historical:

Fotocelere Coloniale was likely an outpost of Fotocelere (Compagnia Fotocelere), a photography studio and graphic art and silver bromide photograph printing company in Turin, Italy (1908-1942).

Italian Eritrea was a colony of the Kingdom of Italy in the territory of present-day Eritrea. Italy began taking possession of parts of Eritrea in 1870 in the early part of the period known as the "Scramble for Africa" during which the continent was systematically invaded and colonized by the major Westeren European powers who were competing to enlarge their empires. By 1890, the Colony of Eritrea was officially founded under Italian rule. Benito Mussolini formed Italian East Africa in 1936 through the merger of Italian Somalia, Italian Eritrea, and the Ethiopian Empire. As part of the Italian Empire during the fascist era, Eritrea became the industrial center of Italian East Africa, and its infrastructure was greatly improved in order to support the increased manufacture of commodities such as buttons, cooking oil, pasta, construction materials, meat, tobacco, hide, and other household goods. During the East African campaign of World War II British forces defeated the Italian army at the battles of Keren and Gondar in 1941, and Eritrea was placed under British military administration. A United Nations General Assembly decision in 1952 granted Eritrea self-government over its domestic affairs, but the country was joined to Ethiopia for foreign affairs and defense. In 1962, the government of Ethiopia annulled the Eritrean parliament and formally annexed Eritrea, sparking the thirty-year Eritrean War of Independence. Eritrea finally gained its independence in 1993.

Sources Consulted:

Dumbarton Oaks. "Fotocelere / Fotocelere di A. Campassi." https://www.doaks.org/research/library-archives/dumbarton-oaks-archives/collections/ephemera/names/fotocelere-fotocelere-di-a-campassi

Acquisition information:
Acquired in 2015.
Physical location:
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Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
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