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[Africa. Group of Kavirondo natives posed in standing pyramid with spears and shields. ca. 191-.] – Historic Reproduction

[Africa. Group of Kavirondo natives posed in standing pyramid with spears and shields. ca. 191-.], [between 1910 and 1920] — historic photograph
[Africa. Group of Kavirondo natives posed in standing pyramid with spears and shields. ca. 191-.], [between 1910 and 1920]. Historic photograph from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

This historic photograph of [Africa. Group of Kavirondo natives posed in standing pyramid with spears and shields. ca. 191-.] brings a moment of history to your wall. An authentic image from the Library of Congress, it carries the weight of the real historical record.

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[Africa. Group of Kavirondo natives posed in standing pyramid with spears and shields. ca. 191-.]

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This photograph stands out for its tiered arrangement: the men are posed in a standing pyramid, with figures at the top and bottom and spears and shields held up for the camera. The title uses "Kavirondo," a colonial-era label for the peoples living around the Kavirondo Gulf on Lake Victoria in what was then British East Africa and is now Kenya. Frank G. Carpenter, an American travel writer who photographed and reported on distant places, assembled the collection this print belongs to, and the staged pose reflects how many European and American visitors of the 1910s chose to present African subjects. Viewers today often read such images for their details of dress and weapons while also noting the viewpoint of the outsider who made them.

Created / published[between 1910 and 1920]
Medium1 photographic print.
GenrePhotographic prints 1910-1920.
SubjectsTitle and other information transcribed from caption card and item. LOT subdivision subject: Africa, Miscellaneous. Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection (Library of Congress). Caption card tracings: Africa--Misc; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,164 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-118508

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