Frank Wilson West African album

Album containing prints of West Africa. The album contains 12 double sided card pages with recessed centres in which photographs have been stuck. Plates 13 and 22 are enlargements of parts of photographs in the album, hinged in at the appropriate point, and 27 is a loose photograph. Some of the photographs have captions; in other cases brief descriptions have been provided. There is no indication as to whether these photographs were published; they do not appear in Morel (1902).
This album is inscribed inside the front cover: 'To John Holt of Liverpool from Frank Wilson of Setta Kama, West Africa 25th Octr. 1899'. John Holt (1841-1915) was the founder and first chairman of John Holt and Co (Liverpool) Ltd.; Setta Kama (Setté Cama) in Gabon, French Equatorial Africa, was a centre for the company's trading activities. On the first page of the album is pasted a note, "Photographs 8, 9, 10, 11 suggested as suitable for reproduction. EDM". These photographs are entered in the following list as 8, 9, 12 and 14. EDM was Edmond Dene Morel (1873-1924), journalist, politician and critic of European policies in Africa. He had met John Holt in 1899 through Mary Kingsley, and worked with him in succeeding years.

Frank Wilson has not been identified.

Unless restrictions apply, the collection is open for consultation by researchers using the Manuscripts Reading Room at Cambridge University Library. For further details on conditions governing access please contact mss@lib.cam.ac.uk. Information about opening hours and obtaining a Cambridge University Library reader's ticket is available from the Library's website (www.lib.cam.ac.uk).

This album, together with Y3043NN and Y3043PP, was presented to the Library in 1986-87 by Derek Holt, a member of the Liverpool family formerly involved in West African trade.

Includes index.

A catalogue of the collection can be found on ArchiveSearch.

All photographs are in fair condition with some fading, but corners have been broken from some of the album pages.

Morel, Edmund Dene (1902), 'Affairs of West Africa', London: W. Heinemann.

This item level description was entered by NE and MJC using information from the original typescript catalogue.

Wilson, Frank, fl 1899