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Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of
Eritrea
2015.R.8
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Title: Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of Eritrea
Date (inclusive): album compiled approximately 1942
Number: 2015.R.8
Creator/Collector:
Fotocelere Coloniale
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
(130 photographs and 1 booklet in 1 album)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
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.
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Language: Collection material is in
English .
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
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
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Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of Eritrea, approximately 1942, The Getty
Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2025.R.8.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2015r8
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 2015.
The collection was processed in 2015 by Beth Ann Guynn who wrote the finding aid in
2022.
The collection was digitized in 2022 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
Arranged in a single series: Series I. Fotocelere Coloniale, Asmara and the roads of
Eritrea, approximately 1942.
Roads -- Eritrea
Forts & fortifications -- Ethiopia
-- Gondar
Eritrea -- Description and travel --
Ethiopia -- Description and travel
Italy -- Colonies -- Africa
Āksum (Ethiopia) --
Antiquities
Gondar (Ethiopia) --
Antiquities
Gelatin silver prints -- Eritrea -- 20th century
Gelatin silver prints -- Ethiopia -- 20th century
Photograph albums -- Eritrea -- 20th century
Snapshots -- Eritrea -- 20th century
Photographs, Original.
Fotocelere Coloniale