Lady Annie Brassey Photograph Collection, approximately 1860-1886

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Summary

Abstract:
This collection consists of 70 folio volumes containing approximately 5,616 photographs collected by English writer and traveler Lady Annie Brassey (1839-1887) during her oceanic voyages around the world. The photographs, chiefly taken by professional photographers, cover the period between the 1860s to the late 1880s and reflect Lady Brassey's interests in architectural views and British fortifications throughout the British Empire, indigenous peoples and living conditions, and exotic plants and animals. The collection also includes an album containing photographs of seascapes by Colonel Stuart Wortley (1832-1890) taken in the 1860s and 1870s.
Extent:
3.5 Linear Feet (approximately 5,616 photographs in 70 volumes)
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Lady Annie Brassey Photograph Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Lady Annie Brassey Collection consists of 70 bound folio volumes containing approximately 5,616 photographs collected and made by Lady Brassey during her oceanic voyages, spanning from the 1860s to the late 1880s. The majority of photographs are by professional photographers of the era.

The photographs primarily date from 1874 through 1887 when the Brassey family toured aboard their yacht Sunbeam. Some of the photographs were collected and taken by Lady Brassey during several pre-Sunbeam voyages—including images in volumes 20 and 21 depicting Canada, the United States, and Mexico when the Brassey's sailed in the yacht Eothen.

Lady Brassey's photographic interests included architectural views, British fortifications, indigenous peoples (she collected many photographs showing native "types," a genre popular in the period), exotic plants, and animals, all subjects reflected in the volumes. An avid amateur photographer who equipped the Sunbeam with a darkroom, Brassey wrote often about visits to photography studios and her attempts to make pictures in various locales.

Assigning attribution to photographs in the collection is difficult, if not impossible. Many photographs have been trimmed and studio imprints excised; none of the images appear to be signed by Lady Brassey herself. A typescript, item-level description of the photographs contained in each volume was completed sometime in the late 1980s by curator of historical photographs Brita Mack and Huntington volunteer Robert Weinstein. Lists of the source materials they consulted for identifying photographers and locales is included in the collection files.

Particular volumes of interest include: Volume 31 depicting the aftermath of the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, with images by J. Pascal Sebah, Émile Béchard, and L. Fiorillo; Volume 64 is a rare set of seascapes by Colonel Henry Stuart Wortley, an artist whom Lady Brassey championed during her lifetime; Volume 69, with its series of amateur photographs that may have been made by Brassey or members of her family, and includes examples of single images printed using a variety of papers and techniques; Volume 70 depicts life aboard the Sunbeam, including photographs of Lady Brassey, Earl Brassey and their children, crew members, and the staterooms with displays of artifacts and specimens.

The volumes measure 45 x 37 cm and are identically bound in quarter morocco with marbled end papers and a small stamp, "Bound by Zaehnsdorf," at the lower left edge of the first page. Spines are stamped in gold with the contents of each volume; a "B" topped with a coronet is stamped near the lower edge of the spine. Each album contains 72 thick cards onto which the photographs are pasted. Many of the albums are not completely filled, while others are filled to capacity. Some images are captioned in an unknown hand. There is no evidence indicating when or in what order the albums were assembled, nor who assembled them.

Identified photographers consist of:

  1. Baldus, Edouard, 1813-1889 (France): Volumes 54 and 66
  2. Bayliss, George (Sydney, Australia): Volume 6
  3. Béchard, Émile 1844-1891 (Egypt): Volumes 29-33
  4. Bell & Langford (New Zealand): Volume 15
  5. Bingham, A. H. Volume 66
  6. Bisson frères ‎ (France): Volume 54
  7. Burton Brothers (Firm) ‎ (Dunedin, New Zealand): Volume 15
  8. Cazabon, S. C. (India): Volume 12
  9. Chase, Henry (Honolulu, Hawaii): Volume 16
  10. Chuck Photo (Ballarat, Australia): Volumes 3 and 6
  11. Cotter, James (Canada): Volume 21
  12. Deen Dayal, Raja, 1844-1905 (India): Volume 12
  13. Dumas (Egypt): Volume 33
  14. Fiorillo, L. (Egypt): Volume 31
  15. Fong, A. (China): Volume 9
  16. Foster & Martin (Melbourne, Australia): Volume 6
  17. Gibson (Penzance) (Great Britain): Volume 57
  18. Godard, A. (Italy): Volume 42
  19. Graziani (Venice, Italy): Volumes 39 and 51
  20. Hammerschmidt, William (Egypt): Volumes 28 and 33
  21. Henderson, Alexander (Canada): Volumes 21 and 70
  22. Horetzky, Charles (Canada): Volume 21
  23. Kerry & Jones. (Sydney, Australia): Volumes 1, 2, and 6
  24. Le Gray, Gustave Volume 66
  25. MacPherson, R. (Italy): Volume 44
  26. Mage, E. (France): Volume 54
  27. Notman, William (Canada): Volumes 21 and 57
  28. Ponti, Carlo (Venice, Italy): Volumes 39 and 67
  29. Rose, C. (Denmark): Volume 60
  30. Scherer & Marholz (St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia): Volume 63
  31. Sebah, J. Pascal (Cairo, Egypt): Volumes 28-34 and 62
  32. Sommer, Georgio (Naples, Italy): Volumes 40, 42, and 61
  33. Stuart Wortley, Henry, 1832-1890 Volume 64
  34. Tagliarini, T. (Sicily): Volume 42
  35. Valentine, James (England): Volume 57
  36. Voland Volume 66
  37. Washbourne Photo (Melbourne, Australia): Volume 7
  38. West & Son (Southsea and Gosport, England): Volume 70
  39. Wilson, George Washington (England): Volume 57

Additional identified photographers (added February 2025):

  • Caire, N. J. (Nicholas John): Vol. 6 majority, including Tyers Mission portraits, Gippsland.
  • Carjat, Étienne: Vol. 27, p. 1, 3: Emir Abdelkader by Carjat.
  • Dickson, Menzies: Vol. 16, royal portraits mostly by Dickson. Sitter, p. 6b identified as 'Old Oakum', a Honolulu character. Also Vol. 17, p. 41 by Dickson.
  • Gsell, Émile: Vol. 13, p. 3.
  • Henderson, Alexander: Vol. 20, p. 7: Brassey family at Niagara Falls by Alexander Henderson. Also features in A Cruise in the Eothen. The signature appears on the print in the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) volume.
  • Lai, Fong (approximately 1839-1890) Lai used "Lai Afong" as his commercial name: Vol. 8, pp. 22-59 (aftermath of 1874 typhoon) as already identified by Prescilla Roberts.
  • Lawton, Joseph: Vol. 12, p. 20.
  • Stillfried, Raimund, Baron von: Vol. 10, majority of portraits of dancing girls etc.
  • Uchida, Kuichi: Vol. 10, pp. 42-43.
  • W. Skeen & Co.: Vol. 12, p. 14 and others.
  • Yamamoto, Kakuma: Vol. 11, images with text from Yamamoto guidebook.
  • (Photographer added July 2025):
  • Camacho, Joao: Vol. 55. According to a researcher, all photographs in this album referring to Tenerife-Canary Islands were taken in 1876 by photographer Joao Camacho and subsequently commercialized by the company Hamilton and Bruch.
Biographical / historical:

Lady Annie Brassey (1839-1887) was an English writer, traveler, and amateur photographer who documented the extensive cruises she made with her family aboard their private yachts in published memoirs and photographs.

Anna Allnutt was born in London on October 7, 1839, to John Allnutt and Elizabeth Harriet. Elizabeth died while her child—called Annie—was a baby. The infant was subsequently sent to live with her paternal grandfather, John Allnutt Sr., in the London suburb of Clapham. Annie developed a love of nature and botany during her years in the countryside, a passion which would inform her collecting interests as an adult. In later childhood, Annie moved to her father's Grosvenor Place residence in London to receive formal education from a governess.

Annie married Thomas Brassey (1836-1918) on October 9, 1860, at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London. The eldest son of Maria Farringdon and Thomas Brassey Sr. (1805-1870)—a self-made railroad magnate who constructed railroads throughout Europe, Canada, India, South America, and Australia—the younger Thomas entered political life in 1861. Brassey represented Hastings in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1886. Prime Minister William E. Gladstone raised Brassey to the Peerage in 1886 as Baron Brassey of Bulkeley, County Cheshire. He became Earl Brassey in 1911.

Annie and Thomas Brassey had five children together: Thomas A. Allnutt (called "T.A.B"), Mabelle Annie, Constance Alberta, Muriel Agnes, and Marie Adelaide. The Brassey family lived at Beauport Park near Hastings, and later at Normanhurst Court, a house built in 1870 in the parish of Catsfield, Sussex.

The Brasseys were keen yachtsmen, and Thomas Brassey's professional interests involved maritime pursuits, including Civil Lord of the Admiralty (1880 -1883); author of The British Navy (1882-1883); Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (1884 -1885); founder of the Naval Annual (1886); President of the Institution of Naval Architects (1893-1895); Governor of Victoria, Australia (1895-1900); and Warden of the Cinque Ports (1908).

Between 1869 and 1887, the Brassey family made a series of extensive cruises aboard their private yachts (see a timeline of these travels below). On these voyages, Lady Brassey collected photographs by local and regional commercial photographers, as well as natural and ethnographic specimens and artifacts. She also wrote lively travel accounts. She privately published recollections from the 1869 and 1872 trips illustrated with photographs (her own and others) and woodcut illustrations in The Flight of the Meteor, 1869-1871 (1872) and A Cruise in the "Eothen" (1872).

With the building in 1874 of a steam-powered, three-masted schooner named Sunbeam, the Brasseys' travels became ever more ambitious. In addition to family, the Sunbeam accommodated more than 30 crew members and a rotating cast of visitors at its numerous ports of call. The yacht's well-appointed common rooms became a floating museum that displayed Lady Brassey's growing collections acquired during her travels.

Lady Brassey's book about her eleven-month circumnavigation of the globe in 1876-1877— titled Around the World in the Yacht "Sunbeam" (1878)—brought the author international fame. The book went into a sixth printing in its first year and was issued in nineteen editions thereafter. In 1881, publisher Longmans, Green adapted Around the World for classroom use; it remained in print for thirty years in both French and English.

An avid amateur photographer, Lady Brassey fitted out the Sunbeam with a state-of-the-art darkroom. She became a member of the Royal Photographic Society and exhibited her photographs at a Society exhibition in 1886. Lady Brassey's various writings include references to the photographic studios she visited and the images she made during her travels. In many cases, she used her own photographs and those she collected as primary sources for the lithographic illustrations that appear throughout her books. Even so, it is difficult to definitively attribute images in the volumes to Brassey herself.

Lady Brassey contracted malaria in Syria in 1869 and from that point forward experienced episodic, debilitating attacks. She also suffered from bronchial problems and favored warmer climes to gain relief from her illnesses. On November 16, 1886, Lady Brassey left England on what turned out to be her final trip. The Sunbeam traveled to India, Borneo and Australia. Brassey died on September 14, 1887, off the coast of Brisbane, and was buried at sea the same day. A recounting of Brassey's final trip, edited by Lady Mary Ann Broome and posthumously published under the title The Last Voyage, appeared in 1889.

During her lifetime, Brassey exhibited her collections in order to raise funds for the charitable causes in which she believed. She displayed the natural and enthnographic specimens and other artifacts at Hastings in 1881 and 1885 and at exhibitions in South Kensington and Swansea in 1883. The collections found a permanent home in `The Lady Brassey Museum' at Earl Brassey's London house, 24 Park Lane. The museum opened to the public shortly after Lady Brassey's death. These collections—as well as items from the family's Normanhurst Court house—were dispersed to museums in Hastings and Bexhill in 1919 and 1920 after the death of Earl Brassey (d. 1918) and Thomas Allnutt Brassey (d. 1919), the Brassey's only son.

Timeline of Brassey Family Travels, 1869-1887

Date Destination Ship
1869 Egypt, Holy Land, Syria, Malta Meteor
Sept. – Nov. 1872 Canada and United States Eothen
July - Aug. 1874 Norway and the Arctic Circle Sunbeam
Sept. 1874 - Jan. 1875 Mediterranean, Turkey Sunbeam
July 1876 – May 1877 Around-the-World Cruise Sunbeam
1878 Mediterranean, Turkey Sunbeam
1883 Egypt Sunbeam
Sept. – Dec. 1883 West Indies, Bermuda, Jamaica, Azores Sunbeam
1885 Norway and Scandinavia, with Prime Minister E. Gladstone Sunbeam
1886-1887 India, Africa, Australia Sunbeam
Lady Brassey dies at sea on Sept. 14, 1887

Acquisition information:
Purchased from George Gregory, 1923.
Custodial history:

In October 1920, the contents of Earl Brassey's home, "Normanhurst," were sold at auction over a five-day period by Phillips, Son & Neale, London, as lot number 1026. The catalog lists 82 folio volumes of "photographs from around the world mounted and bound in half morocco by Zaehnsdorf." The annotated catalog in the British Library notes that the lot sold for ÂŁ44 to a buyer that can possibly, due to the semi-legible hand, be identified as the London bookselling firm of James Rimell & Son. Subsequently, in 1921, a listing for "Lord Brassey's Collection of Photographs during his Voyages," priced at ÂŁ130, appears in a catalog of the bookselling firm George Gregory of Bath, England; a receipt notes the sale price as ÂŁ100.

Processing information:

Additional photographers were identified by researcher Dr. Sarah French, Curatorial Fellow in Photography, V&A South Kensington, London. In February 2025, the names were added to the Scope and Contents note. In July 2025, the photographer Joao Camacho was added to the list; the identification came from researcher Natalia Vias Trujillo from Canary Islands.

Arrangement:

The volumes are arranged geographically in the following series:

  1. Australia (Vols. 1-7)
  2. Asia (Vols. 8-14)
  3. Oceania and Pacific Islands (Vols. 15-17)
  4. Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands (Vols. 18-19)
  5. North America (Vols. 20-21)
  6. Africa (Vols. 22-34)
  7. Europe (Vols. 35-63)
  8. Colonel Stuart Wortley seascape photographs (Vol. 64)
  9. Artwork (Vols. 65-67)
  10. "The Sunbeam" photographs (Vols. 68-70)
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Lady Annie Brassey Photograph Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2129
reference@huntington.org
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