34 loose gelatin silver prints of various sizes (seven images in two copies, one photo in four copies), including one large photo ca. 18x23,5 cm (7 x 9 ¼ in), four photos ca. 13x17,5 cm (5x7 in) or slightly smaller, and 29 small photos ca. 6,5x9 cm (2 ½ x 3 ½ in). Twenty-eight images with period manuscript pencil captions in French on verso of photographs (most photos are also with pencil dates on verso). Photos slightly waved, a few with mild fading, but overall a very good collection of interesting photos.

Historically significant collection of original gelatin silver photographs illustrating the survey of the area between Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa performed by the Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company during the construction of the first Ethiopian railway linking the capital with the port of Djibouti in what was then French Somaliland. The initial construction started in 1894 by the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia, which managed to bring the line to the vicinity of Harar by 1906, where the station and the settlement of Dire Dawa were constructed. The company went bankrupt the same year, and further construction was postponed until the newly formed Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company took over in 1908. The work resumed in 1914, and the next year the line reached Akaki, just before Addis Ababa, finally getting to the capital in 1917.

According to the captions on verso, the photographs from our collection were taken within the time frame of November 1911 – July 1912 and start with a view of the Catholic mission in Dire Dawa. The survey travel is documented in the photos of the expedition truck labouring along Ethiopian dirt roads, crossing rivers and skidding in mud, with the travellers and native guides pushing the truck or making an improvised bridge with wooden planks. There are also portraits of the French expedition members, posing in camps at Ourso/Hurso and Moullou/Mulu (future stations of the railway) and views of a market in the Tedescha-Malka/Tadecha Malka on the Cassam/Germama River bank and a dry gorge near Balchi (Amhara Region of Central Ethiopia). Three views of Addis Ababa show a market square (with a large tractor), a street leading to the Royal Guebi compound and people at the entrance of a building (likely, a Catholic mission). Two almost identical portraits depict Armand Savouré (a prominent French merchant in Ethiopia and an advisor to Emperor Menelik II), his wife, children and an Ethiopian child posing in front of their house in Addis Ababa. There are also portraits of Ethiopian women and children, and the travellers’ guide posing with a hunted gazelle. Overall an interesting collection of original photos documenting a survey trip for the construction of the first Ethiopian railway.