The Photograph Album of an Unknown American Missionary in Natal, c.1930: The Good News – and the Bad

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Christraud Geary's analysis of missionary photography in Africa, this article argues that the Houghton Library photograph album of an unknown American missionary in Natal of around 1930 was constructed for public rather than private viewing, and that the story it tells conforms largely to the pattern of the standard ‘missionary narrative’. Although obviously depicting specific individuals in certain places at precise times, the album works nonetheless on a metaphorical level in defining, in turn, the difficult access to the mission field, the extent of the ‘problem’ to be addressed, and the rewards of the missionary labours. However, while the missionary narrative is told pictorially in these broad symbolic terms, in its differences from the standard narrative and in details such as its evident concern with children, the album does reflect actual developments in mission practice in Natal around 1930.

Keywords:

• missions
• photography
• Natal
• American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

Fifteen images are integral to this article. Figures 1–3 are taken, by permission, from Christraud Geary, ‘Missionary Photography: Private and Public Readings’, African Arts, 24, 4 (1991), 48–59. Figures 4–15 are from the anonymous album of an American missionary in Natal housed in the Houghton Library, Harvard University (ABC 78.2, Box 21, item 13), and are reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Fifteen images are integral to this article. Figures 1–3 are taken, by permission, from Christraud Geary, ‘Missionary Photography: Private and Public Readings’, African Arts, 24, 4 (1991), 48–59. Figures 4–15 are from the anonymous album of an American missionary in Natal housed in the Houghton Library, Harvard University (ABC 78.2, Box 21, item 13), and are reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Notes

Fifteen images are integral to this article. Figures 1–3 are taken, by permission, from Christraud Geary, ‘Missionary Photography: Private and Public Readings’, African Arts, 24, 4 (1991), 48–59. Figures 4–15 are from the anonymous album of an American missionary in Natal housed in the Houghton Library, Harvard University (ABC 78.2, Box 21, item 13), and are reproduced by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.