Finding aid for Martinique: vues & types, 1870s-1880s
Beth Ann Guynn
Descriptive Summary
Title: Martinique: vues & types
Date (inclusive): 1870s-1880s
Number: 95.R.97
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
(69 photographs in 1 album)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The album of 69 photographs taken by an
unidentified photographer(s) contains views of Martinique and studio portraits of the
island's inhabitants.
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Language: Collection material is in
French .
Biographical Note
The album was likely produced by one of the early photographers working in Martinique.
Sources consulted:
Garcia, Claire Oberon. "My first visit to 'Le Pays des Revenants': Color, Caste, and Class
in Martinque: Then and…?" https://sites.coloradocollege.edu/martinique/2011/07/21/79/
Northrup, David. "Indentured Indians in the French Antilles. Les immigrants indiens engagés
aux Antilles françaises,"
Outre-Mers: Revue d'histoire, Année
2000: 245-271.
Administrative Information
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Martinique: vues & types, 1870s-1880s, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles,
Accession no. 95.R.97.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa95r97
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 1995.
Processing Information
Beth Ann Guynn wrote the finding aid in 2021.
Digitized Material
The collection was digitized by the repository in 2021 and the images are available
online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/95r97
Scope and Content of Collection
The album contains 69 albumen photographs of Martinique by an unidentified maker(s)
including 24 large format and 25 carte-de-visite size views of Fort-de-France, Balata, St.
Pierre, and environs; three large format portraits; and 17 carte-de-visite size studio
portraits. One of the large photographs depicts a group of East Indian immigrants, likely
recruited to the island as indentured laborers; the other two are studio portraits of a
multiracial woman and a Congolese man respectively. Slavery was abolished in Martinique in
1848. Lacking a labor force French coffee and sugar planters first looked to coastal western
Africa where they purchased enslaved persons, emancipated them, and then signed them into
long-term contracts to work in Martinique. This practice was quickly viewed as enslavement
in another guise, and the planters then looked to East India for laborers.
The album is half bound in dark red leather with pebbled boards. The title is debossed on
the front cover.
Titles for most of the individual photographs are from the French captions written on the
mounts below the images. Consequently, some of the language used to describe Black persons
in the titles, such as négresses and mulâtresses (negro women and mulatto women), are now
considered to be outdated, racist, or offensive. Fifteen of the carte-de-visite size
portraits depict women of color. Grouped on two pages and collectively captioned as
representing racial types, these images extend the 1860s and 1870s craze of collecting
cartes-de-visite of one's friends, family, heads of state, and other celebrities to the
collecting of exoticized and objectified unnamed women. Since the names of the sitters are
unknown descriptive titles for their portraits were devised by the archivist.
Arrangement
Arranged in a single series:
Series I. Martinique: vues & types,
1870s-1880s.
Indexing Terms
Subjects - Topics
Indentured servants -- Martinique
Blacks -- Martinique -- Portraits
Subjects - Places
Martinique -- Description and travel
France -- Colonies -- America
Genres and Forms of Material
Albumen prints -- Martinique -- 19th century
Photograph albums -- Martinique -- 19th century
Group portraits -- Martinique -- 19th century
Studio portraits -- Martinique -- 19th century
Photographs, Original.
Series I.
Martinique: vues & types,
1870s-1880s
Martinique: vues & types, [1870s-1880s] (digitized version)
Arrangement
In original order.
box 1, Page Free
endpapers
95.R.97-fe
Front endpapers
box 1, page Free front endpaper
verso
95.R.97-fev
Verso of free front endpaper
box 1, page 1 recto
95.R.97-1r
Rue du Gouvernement à Fort-de-France
box 1, page 2 recto
95.R.97-2r
Rivière Levassor
box 1, page 3 recto
95.R.97-3r
Chantier des transatlantiques
box 1, page 4 recto
95.R.97-4r
Rade de St. Pierre
box 1, page 5 recto
95.R.97-5r
Le Calvaire (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 6 recto
95.R.97-6r
Camp de Balata, logement du colonel (environs de Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 7 recto
95.R.97-7r
Pitons Didier, établissement thermal (environs de Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 8 recto
95.R.97-8r
Camp de Balata, logement du gouverneur (environs de
Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 9 recto
95.R.97-9r
Pitons Absalon, établissement thermal
Scope and Content Note
Caption continues: (environs de Fort-de-France).
box 1, page 10 recto
95.R.97-10r
Fort-de-France: Baie des Flamands
box 1, page 11 recto
95.R.97-11r
Savanne de Fort-de-France: Statue de l'impératrix Joséphine
box 1, page 12 recto
95.R.97-12r
Rade de St. Pierre
box 1, page 13 recto
95.R.97-13r
Jardin du gouvernement à Fort-de-France: Arbre du voyageur
box 1, page 14 recto
95.R.97-14r
Jardin du gouvernement (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 15 recto
95.R.97-15r
Pitons Absalon, établissement thermal
Scope and Content Note
Caption continues: (environs de Fort-de-France).
box 1, page 16 recto
95.R.97-16r
Pitons Absalon, maison de bains
box 1, page 17 recto
95.R.97-17r
Rivière Madame à Fort-de-France
box 1, page 18 recto
95.R.97-18r
Rivière Madame
box 1, page 19 recto
95.R.97-19r
Bassin de radoub (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 20 recto
95.R.97-20r
Bassin de radoub - 2e vue
box 1, page 21 recto
95.R.97-21r
Place Bertin à S. Pierre
box 1, page 22 recto
95.R.97-22r
Touffe de bambous
box 1, page 23 recto
95.R.97-23r
Cascade du jardin botanique
box 1, page 24 recto
95.R.97-24r
Groupe d'Indiens à dépôt des immigrants à Fort-de-France
box 1, page 25 recto
95.R.97-25r
Mulâtresse
Scope and Content Note
Full-length portrait of a Black woman.
box 1, page 26 recto
95.R.97-26r
Nègre du Congo
Scope and Content Note
Full-length portrait of a Black man. See accession number 2002.R.1 for another copy
of this image where it is attributed to H. Hartmann.
box 1, page 27 recto
95.R.97-27r
Négresses et mulâtresses
Scope and Content Note
The album page contains seven carte-de-visite size studio portraits of unidentified
Black female sitters and includes bust portraits as well as full- and
three-quarter-length standing and seated portraits.
box 1, page 27 recto-1
95.R.97-27r.1
[Seated Woman with Plaid Headwrap]
box 1, page 27 recto-2
95.R.97-27r.2
[Woman Seated by a Window]
box 1, page 27 recto-3
95.R.97-27r.3
[Bust Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Dark Dress, Large Beads, and
Headgear]
box 1, page 27 recto-4
95.R.97-27r.4
[Woman Wearing Plaid Dress]
box 1, page 27 recto-5
95.R.97-27r.5
[Profile Bust Portrait of a Woman Wearing Bejeweled Plaid
Headwrap]
box 1, page 27 recto-6
95.R.97-27r.6
[Standing Woman with White Collar]
box 1, page 27 recto-7
95.R.97-27r.7
[Woman Carrying Basket on Her Head]
box 1, page 28 recto
95.R.97-28r
Types de mulâtresses
Scope and Content Note
The album page contains seven carte-de-visite size studio portraits of unidentified
Black female sitters and includes four bust portaits, one standing
three-quarter-length portrait, one seated half-length portrait, and a portrait of two
seated women.
box 1, page 28 recto-1
95.R.97-28r.1
[Bust Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Bejeweled Headwrap and Large
Beads]
box 1, page 28 recto-2
95.R.97-28r.2
[Bust Portrait of a Woman in a White Top]
box 1, page 28 recto-3
95.R.97-28r.3
[Profile Bust Portrait of a Woman in a White Top]
box 1, page 28 recto-4
95.R.97-28r.4
[Bust Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Bejeweled Headwrap, Satin Scarf, and
Large Beads]
box 1, page 28 recto-5
95.R.97-28r.5
[Woman Standing Next to a Basket of Fruit]
box 1, page 28 recto-6
95.R.97-28r.6
[Two Seated Women]
box 1, page 28 recto-7
95.R.97-28r.7
[Woman with White Scarf Looking to the Right]
box 1, page 29 recto
95.R.97-29r
[Three Occupational Portraits]
Scope and Content Note
The album page contains three carte-de-visite size occupational portraits of Black
sitter (two men and a woman).
box 1, page 29 recto-1
95.R.97-29r.1
Fabrit de fruits au cire
box 1, page 29 recto-2
95.R.97-29r.2
Porteuse de...
Scope and Content Note
The woman is carrying a bucket covered with a plank on her head.
box 1, page 29 recto-3
95.R.97-29r.3
Montreur de serpents
box 1, page 30 recto
95.R.97-30r
[Views of St. Pierre and Fort-de-France]
Scope and Content Note
Album page with nine carte-de-visite size views.
box 1, page 30 recto-1
95.R.97-30r.1
Place Bertin (St. Pierre)
box 1, page 30 recto-2
95.R.97-30r.2
Bassin de radoub (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 30 recto-3
95.R.97-30r.3
Vue de Fort-de-France: Baie des Flamands
box 1, page 30 recto-4
95.R.97-30r.4
Remorqueur entre Fort-de-France et St. Pierre
box 1, page 30 recto-5
95.R.97-30r.5
Environs de St. Pierre
box 1, page 30 recto-6
95.R.97-30r.6
Rade de St. Pierre
box 1, page 30 recto-7
95.R.97-30r.7
Statue de l'impératrice Joséphine sur La Savanne de
Fort-de-France
Scope and Content Note
Caption reads: Statue de l'Impr.ce. Joséphine sur la savanne de Fort-de-France.
box 1, page 30 recto-8
95.R.97-30r.8
Eglise de Fort-de-France
box 1, page 30 recto-9
95.R.97-29r.9
Plan de Fort-de-France
Scope and Content Note
Photographic reproduction of a map.
box 1, page 31 recto
95.R.97-31r
[Views of Fort Saint-Louis, Fort-de-France, and St. Pierre]
Scope and Content Note
Album page with eight carte-de-visite size views.
box 1, page 31 recto-1
95.R.97-31r.1
Atelier de travail
box 1, page 31 recto-2
95.R.97-31r.2
Quartier d'artillerie et Fort St.-Louis (Fort-de-France)
Scope and Content Note
Caption reads: Quartier d'artillerie et Fort St. Louis (Fort-de Fre.)
box 1, page 31 recto-3
95.R.97-31r.3
Rue du Gouvernement (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 31 recto-4
95.R.97-31r.4
Rue du Fort-de-France
box 1, page 31 recto-5
95.R.97-31r.5
Pont et rivière au jardin botanique (St. Pierre)
box 1, page 31 recto-6
95.R.97-31r.6
Case de travailleurs dans les bois
box 1, page 31 recto-7
95.R.97-31r.7
Jardin botanique (St. Pierre)
box 1, page 31 recto-8
95.R.97-31r.8
Magasin de subsistances et Fort St.-Louis (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 32 recto
95.R.97-32r
[Views of Fort-de-France, St. Pierre, and Religious Sites]
Scope and Content Note
Album page with eight carte-de-visite size views.
box 1, page 32 recto-1
95.R.97-32r.1
Marché à Fort-de-France
box 1, page 32 recto-2
95.R.97-32r.2
Cascade du jardin botanique (St. Pierre)
box 1, page 32 recto-3
95.R.97-32r.3
Cascade (2er vue)
box 1, page 32 recto-4
95.R.97-32r.4
Cascade du Trou aux Sergents
box 1, page 32 recto-5
95.R.97-32r.5
Env. de St. Pierre (Environs de St. Pierre)
Scope and Content Note
View of nuns praying at an altar. Caption in negative below image: N. D. de la
Déliverande / priez pour nous.
box 1, page 32 recto-6
95.R.97-32r.6
Env. de St. Pierre (Environs de St. Pierre)
Scope and Content Note
Nuns and others praying at an outdoor shrine. Caption in negative below image
reads: N. D. de Lourdes priez pour nous!
box 1, page 32 recto-7
95.R.97-32r.7
Château d'eau (Fort-de-France)
box 1, page 32 recto-8
95.R.97-32r.8
N. D. de la Délivrande
Scope and Content Note
Exterior view of a church. Caption in negative below the image: N. D. de la
Délivrande.
box 1, page Back
endpapers
95.R.97-be
Back endpapers