Folio album (ca. 36x24,5 cm or 14 x 9 ½ in). 25 card stock leaves. With 100 mounted original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 15x19,5 cm (6 x 7 ½ in) to ca. 12x17,5 cm (4 ½ x 7 in). About a dozen photos with period pencil or ink captions in German on verso; one photo is signed “K. Sch., 1911” in negative. Five images with the photographers’ ink stamps on verso (“Erich Staebe, Karibib, Deutsch-Süd-West Afrika,” “Richard Grosskoph,” “Nanson, Photographer, Las Palmas, Grand Canary”). Period blue full cloth album; gilt-lettered title on the front board. Several mounts with minor tears not affecting the images, two photos with losses of one of the corners, one photo with creases, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

Interesting extensive collection of original gelatin silver photos of Namibia under German colonial rule in ca. 1912, not long before the beginning of WW1. The images include at least six views of Swakopmund - then the main harbour of German South West Africa: general views taken from the sea, harbour pier, downtown core, Marine Denkmal (Memorial), the Lighthouse and nearby building of Bezirksgericht (now Swakopmund State House). There is also an important photo of the inauguration of the Reiterdenkmal (Rider Monument) in Windhoek in 1912 – a controversial memorial to German soldiers and civilians who died during the Herero and Nama Wars of 1904-1908. The monument was erected next to the Christ Church in central Windhoek and permanently removed in 2013. Another photo of the colonial capital was identified as “Windhuek with the native church” by the compiler. Several photos show the Joahnn-Albrechts-Feste – a German Schutztruppe fortress, built in 1906 between Karibib and Okahanja (general and close-up views of the buildings, scenes of military reviews, artillery guns). There are also photos of Karibib (Hotelplatz with the tracks of the Swakopmund-Windhoek railway in the foreground, a town street), Swakopmund-Windhoek railway (clearing tracks from a fallen tree, a train wreck, loading horses into train cars), German settlements and countryside estates, the interior of a church, a German grave, &c. Several photos show German Schutztruppe soldiers firing artillery guns, mounted on horses or camels, posing in tent camps, cooking food outdoors, swimming in streams, resting, posing with hunted animals, &c. Over a dozen images portray native Namibians or show their villages. There are also two views of Las Palmas (Canary Islands), apparently purchased by the compiler on the way to German South West Africa. Overall an important collection of 100 original photos of German colonial Namibia shortly before the beginning of WW1.

A list of captions: Swakopmund, 20/Sep. 1912; Landungsbrücke, Sw. Mund, <…> 20 Juli 1912; Kriegerdenkmal, Swakopmund, 20/Sept 12; Swakopmund, [7?] Sept. 191[2]; Las Palmas, 5/9 12; Las Palmas, Puerto de la Luz, 5/9 12; Swakopmund, 20 Sept., Kriegerdenkmal & Leuchtturm; Sanddunen a/Swakopmund, 20 Sept. 1912; Karibib, Hotelplatz; Karibib; Gebirgs[…?]; [Göbelbetrieb?] in Afrika; Manover; Windhük mit Eingeborenen Kirche <…>.