Abyssinia Expedition 1868-9
Photograph
1868-9 (photographed)
1868-9 (photographed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Frustrated by a lack of communication from Queen Victoria’s government, in 1864 the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (Theodore) took a number of Europeans captive, including the British consul, Captain Cameron. The British response was a military expedition of huge complexity and expense led by General Sir Robert Napier. The expedition marched to Tewodros’s fortress at Maqdala (Magdala) where a brief battle took place. Britain won the conflict, but not before the captives were released and Tewodros himself had committed suicide.
The expedition, which involved more than 13,000 men and a journey of some 400 miles, received unprecedented publicity in Britain. Crucially, it was one of Britain’s earliest military operations to be captured via the relatively new science of photography. Two sets of photographic stores and equipment were sent from England by the Royal Engineers’ Establishment and used to record the landscapes, camp scenes and leading individuals associated with the expedition.
This image shows a church at Magdala, near where the final conflict took place. The church appears to have been abandoned in a hurry as water vessels and tools lie scattered around. Three European soldiers flank the entrance and have made a tripod of their bayonets in front of the building. The image appears to suggest the complete conquest of the ‘heart’ of Ethiopian culture.
The expedition, which involved more than 13,000 men and a journey of some 400 miles, received unprecedented publicity in Britain. Crucially, it was one of Britain’s earliest military operations to be captured via the relatively new science of photography. Two sets of photographic stores and equipment were sent from England by the Royal Engineers’ Establishment and used to record the landscapes, camp scenes and leading individuals associated with the expedition.
This image shows a church at Magdala, near where the final conflict took place. The church appears to have been abandoned in a hurry as water vessels and tools lie scattered around. Three European soldiers flank the entrance and have made a tripod of their bayonets in front of the building. The image appears to suggest the complete conquest of the ‘heart’ of Ethiopian culture.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Titles |
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| Materials and techniques | Albumen print |
| Brief description | 'Magdala, Abyssinia: Church', Abyssinia Expedition 1868-9, photograph by the Royal Engineers |
| Physical description | Photograph of a church at Magdala, Ethiopia with three European soldiers outside. Photograph mounted on cream card. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Text top left: Architecture: Abyssinia
Text top centre: IIcc. Text top right: A
Text bottom right: Magdala, Abyssinia: Church (handwritten in blue ink)
On reverse signed 'A Pritcheal' (sp?) (Could 'A Pritcheal' be Major [H.B.] Pritchard, who commanded the 10th Company [Royal Engineers], and who 'directed the photographers' and was apparently 'indefatigable in his endeavours to obtain interesting subjects for the camera.' [H.B. Pritchard, 'Photography in Connection with the Abyssinian Expedition', British Journal of Photography, xv, 1868, pp.601-3, quoted in Chapter 3, 'The Art of Campaigning', in Picturing Empire, Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire, James R. Ryan, London: Reaktion Books, 1997, p.82]?) |
| Gallery label | Maqdala 1868 display, 5 April 2018 - 30 June 2019
Photograph of Medhane Alem Church ｜ የመድሀኒያለም ቤተክርስቲያን ፎቶ
Royal Engineers, Maqdala (መቅደላ), Ethiopia, 1868
Three soldiers pose outside the Church of Medhane Alem (የመድሀኒያለም ቤተክርስቲያን), situated close to the fortress at Maqdala. Tewodros was buried here by the British troops after his suicide on 13 April 1868, under the name of Theodore II. He killed himself with a gun that Queen Victoria had gifted to him. The army later burned the fortress at Maqdala and the surrounding area, including the church.
Albumen print
Museum no. 723-1927
(5 April 2018 - 30 June 2019) |
| Historical context | 'Two bulky sets of photographic stores and equipment (of which only one was used) were sent from England at the suggestion of the director of the Royal Engineers’ Establishment at Chatham. The equipment was supervised in the field by a chief photographer, Sergeant John Harrold, and seven assistants. Besides their other duties, the Royal Engineers used the camera to record scenes of the expeditionary forces, portraits of officers and landscape views. Although it is not known how many such photographs were made in total, a series of seventy-eight, including landscape views, camp scenes, sketches and portraits were subsequently assembled into albums and presented to various worthy institutions of government and science, from the RGS to the Foreign Office, by the Secretary of State for War in 1869. A number of the photographs were also used, along with drawings by various officers, as a basis for the illustrations in the official Record of the Expedition to Abyssinia.' (p74) 'Unlike commercial photographers who accompanied earlier and subsequent campaigns, the photographers of the Royal Engineers were not treated as privileged artists. Nor were they individually acknowledged on their photographs. Their work was represented as a collective record rather than a series of subjective studies.' (p81) Chapter 3, ‘The Art of Campaigning’, in Picturing Empire, Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire, James R. Ryan, London: Reaktion Books, 1997. |
| Subject depicted | |
| Association | |
| Summary | Frustrated by a lack of communication from Queen Victoria’s government, in 1864 the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (Theodore) took a number of Europeans captive, including the British consul, Captain Cameron. The British response was a military expedition of huge complexity and expense led by General Sir Robert Napier. The expedition marched to Tewodros’s fortress at Maqdala (Magdala) where a brief battle took place. Britain won the conflict, but not before the captives were released and Tewodros himself had committed suicide. The expedition, which involved more than 13,000 men and a journey of some 400 miles, received unprecedented publicity in Britain. Crucially, it was one of Britain’s earliest military operations to be captured via the relatively new science of photography. Two sets of photographic stores and equipment were sent from England by the Royal Engineers’ Establishment and used to record the landscapes, camp scenes and leading individuals associated with the expedition. This image shows a church at Magdala, near where the final conflict took place. The church appears to have been abandoned in a hurry as water vessels and tools lie scattered around. Three European soldiers flank the entrance and have made a tripod of their bayonets in front of the building. The image appears to suggest the complete conquest of the ‘heart’ of Ethiopian culture. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 723-1927 |
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| Record created | January 3, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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