A what-is-it? of Mashonaland, Rhodesia, South Africa – Antique Print
(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 rare historic photograph captures A what-is-it? of Mashonaland, Rhodesia, South Africa in remarkable detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
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A what-is-it? of Mashonaland, Rhodesia, South Africa
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A portrait of a woman from Mashonaland, the region that is now part of Zimbabwe, the picture carries the wry title "A what-is-it?" in its caption, a phrase that suggests the image was meant to puzzle or amuse viewers. It was made in 1898, when Mashonaland was under the British South Africa Company's administration, and photographs like this one reached Victorian audiences through commercial printing and were often framed as curiosities of a distant place. The print is credited to Benjamin S. Agnew and numbered 88, and its catalog tags group it under women and portraits, which invites a closer look at how the subject was presented.
| Created / published | 1898 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photographic print. |
| Subjects | Photoprint by Benjamin S. Agnew. No. 88. This record contains unverified data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Africa--Mashonaland--1898; Women--Portraits--1898; Women--Africa--1898; Geogr.; Women; Shelf. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 877 × 1,536 px · prints to 3 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-151892 |
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