Album 1: Oblong Folio (ca. 25x30 cm or 9 ¾ x 11 ¾ in). 24 card stock leaves. With 154 original gelatin silver photos, from ca. 9,5x14,5 cm (3 ¾ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 6x5,5 cm (2 ¼ x 2 in). Ca. 140 photos with period pencil captions on the mounts (some captions relate to several images). With two mounted real photo postcards ca. 9x14 cm (3 ½ x 5 ½ in) and six mounted souvenir postal stamps from the series “South Africa, Kruger National Park.” Period black faux leather album fastened with a string. Binding slightly rubbed on extremities, , but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

Album 2: Oblong Quarto (ca. 18,5x29,5 cm or 7 ¼ x 11 ¾ in). 33 card stock leaves (4 blank). With 112 original gelatin silver photos, including two panoramas ca. 7x20 cm (2 ¾ x 7 ¾ in) or slightly larger; the rest of the photos are from ca. 9,5x14,5 cm (3 ¾ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 6x6 cm (2 ¼ x 2 ¼ in). All but a few photos with period white ink captions on the mounts (some captions relate to several images). Period black full cloth album fastened with a string; gilt-lettered title “Photographs” on the front board. Binding slightly rubbed on extremities, but overall a very good album of interesting photos.

WITH: two loose gelatin silver photos, both ca. 14,5x19,5 cm (5 ¾ x 7 ¾ in); both with the photographer’s signatures in negative; one also captioned “Mpatamanga Gorge” in negative. WITH: a notebook: 12mo (ca. 16x10 cm or 6 ¼ x 3 ¾ in). Over a hundred leaves, filled in mostly on rectos, occasional notes on versos. Blue ink and pencil on lined paper. Presentation inscription, the owner’s address, the diary title on recto and verso of the front free endpapers. Period blue notebook with cloth spine and card boards. Overall very good. WITH: an original manuscript: large Octavo (ca. 23x17,5 cm or 9x7 in). [8] pp. Pencil, blue and green ink on lined paper. Fold marks, paper slightly age-toned, otherwise very good.

Historically significant collection of two albums with over 260 lively amateur gelatin silver photos, illustrating an early caravan road trip around Southern Africa, dating back to ca. 1938-1939. The travelling party, an English family (“Mr. Clinton Thomas,” his wife and 20-year-old daughter), arrived in Durban from Southampton in November 1937, bringing their caravan vehicle with them (the diary, kept by Ms. Thomas, reveals some details on the party disembarking in Durban and clearing the caravan in local customs on November 19). The albums document several of their road trips around the Union of South Africa (South African Republic), Southern and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia), Nyasaland (Malawi) and Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique).

The larger album opens with a photo of the travellers’ car and caravan in front of their house near Durban, captioned “W’re off,” followed by several views of Natal Province (travellers resting on a riverbank near Estcourt, the caravan at Vrede and Standerton). Over forty photos of Transvaal (modern-day Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa) show the caravan “on the way to Punda Maria,” a series of views of Kruger National Park (the caravan in Shingwedzi and Letaba rest camps, scenery with lions, antelopes, wildebeests, giraffes, ostriches, “a concrete causeway,” “Crocodile River pontoon,” “Sabi River from Letaba Camp,” “Memorial stone unveiled by P. Kruger at the opening of the Park,” the caravan stuck on a “sand drift”), Wyllie’s Poort and Magoebaskloof mountain passes, “Union Buildings at Pretoria,” &c.

Over sixty photos of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) show customs house in Beitbridge, “pitch at Bulawayo,” grave of Cecil Rhodes and Memorial to the Shangani Patrol in the Matobo Hills (southern Zimbabwe), a series of excellent views of the Victoria Falls (general views, rising water vapour in the distance, Victoria Falls Bridge, Devil’s Cataract, statue of David Livingstone, Boiling Pot, tourists gathered around a biplane), a series of views of the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe (city walls, tower, house structures, the travellers’ caravan, &c.), mountainous landscapes of Melsetter/Chimanimani district, “Looking from Vumba Mountain” (Bvumba Mountains), “Umtali Race Meeting,” the caravan parked at rest camps, travellers pushing their stuck car, baobab trees, waterfalls, &c.

Over a dozen images of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) show the animals in the Livingstone Zoo, the car and caravan crossing a river over a rope ferry, road scenes on the way from Lusaka to Fort Jameson (Chipata), Luangwa River, &c. The album also contains over twenty photos of Nyasaland (Malawi), showing “Fort Johnson”/Mangochi (the caravan in the settlement, a portrait of “the Rt. Hon. Cpt. & Mrs. Evens”), native fishermen on Lake Nyasa/Malawi, the car and van on the road next to the sign “Beware of elephants on this road,” several views of the town of “Mlanje, 9000” and Mulanje Mountains (Mulanje, Malawi, on the border with Mozambique), “Lyons Lujeri Tea Factory,” travellers during a picnic at Mpatamanga Gorge (two loose photos depict the same event), &c. There are also three images of the Mazowe River (Mozambique) and the caravan being transported on a “Mazoe River pontoon.”

The smaller album, titled “Photographs taken in Africa in the year 1938-9,” opens with a group portrait of the travellers and their friends posing in front of the caravan in “Transvaal.” Most of the photos in this album were taken in South Africa. Ten views of the Drakensberg Mountains show the Amphitheatre (including two panoramic views), Giant’s Castle, the caravan at different viewpoints, and “Zulu huts.”

A series of photos taken on the way from Durban to Cape Town show Durban Snake Park (travellers and a local guide posing with pythons), coastal towns of St. Michaels (Frank Dew’s house”) and Port St. John’s (“post office,” “milk delivery”), East London (“the wreck of the ‘Stuart Star’ off East London” [wrecked in December 1937 off Hood Point Light], steamer “Stirling Castle” of the Union-Castle Line leaving the port, city zoo, “a span of oxen,” bungalows and countryside of “Hogsback District”); Anglo-Boer War Memorial in Grahamstown/Makhanda, Swartberg and Meiringspoort Passes of the Swartberg Mountain Range, environs of Oudtshoorn (scenes at an ostrich farm, “entrance to Cango Caves”), a tow truck lifting the traveller’s car on a road, men fishing of the cliffs in Hermanus, &c.