Äthiopien – Original-Fotografien. Important Collection of 209 Original Photographs Taken during a Survey Trip prior to the Completion of the First Ethiopian Railway from Djibouti to Addis Ababa, with Historically Significant Scenes of the Surveying Trip Along Dirt Roads in a Truck, Traversing Rivers etc., Portraits of the Travellers including Emperor Menelik II’s Advisor Armand Savouré, Portraits of the Locals, and Interesting Views of Addis Ababa, Harar, Dire Dawa, Hurso, Erer, Gota, Mulu, Djibouti, Aden et al.; With: Two Notebooks with Summaries of P. Ferret and J. Galinier’s “Voyage en Abyssinie” (Paris, 1847-1848, 3 vols. & Atlas), and E. De Felcourt’s “L’Abyssinie: Agriculture, Chemin de Fer” (Paris, 1911)].?

Ca. 1911-1912. 209 loose gelatin silver prints of various sizes, including four large photos ca. 18x23,5 cm (7 x 9 ? in) or slightly smaller, 134 photos ca. 13x17 cm (5x7 in) or slightly smaller, 55 small photos ca. 6,5x9 cm (2 ? x 3 ? in), and sixteen images of various size, from ca. 10,5x15 cm (4 ? 5 ? in) to ca. 4,5x7 cm (ca. 1 ? x 2 ? in), including seven photos ca. 9x14 cm (5 ? x 3 ? in, printed as real photo postcards). Vast majority of images with period captions in pencil in French on versos. Housed in the original brown card box ca. 19x26x5,5 cm (7 ? x 10 ? x 2 ? in) with a paper title label on the lid. Images slightly waved, some mildly faded, but overall a very good collection. With: two Octavo notebooks, 58 (49 filled in) pp. And 48 (44 filled in) pp. Filled in manuscript (ink). The notebooks are supplemented with a pencil drawing, seven leaves of notes, three hand drawn maps from de Felcourt’s “L’Abyssinie”, each ca. 10x8 cm (3 ? x 3 in), and large hand drawn plan of a part of Ethiopia from Ferret and Galinier’s “Voyage en Abyssinie”, ca. 27,5x21 cm (11 x 8 ? in) loosely laid in. Original quarter cloth notebooks with light blue and pink stiff wrappers. Historically significant extensive collection of original photographs taken during the survey of the area between Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa organized by the Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company in order to finish the construction of the first Ethiopian railway linking the capital with the port of Djibouti. The initial construction started in 1894 by the Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia which managed to bring the line to the vicinity of Harar by 1906 where the station and the settlement of Dire Dawa was constructed. The company went bankrupt the same year and the further construction was postponed until the newly formed Franco-Ethiopian Railway Company took over in 1908. The work resumed in 1914 and the next year the line reached Akaki, just before Addis Ababa, finally getting to the capital in 1917. The photographs from our collection were taken within the time frame of 21 November 1911 - 14 August 1912 and document the special survey trip undertaken in order to ascertain the best route for the line between Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa. The collection starts with several views of the city of Djibouti showing the Djibouti raid, Hotel Continental, mosque, as well as scenes when the travelers’ truck was loaded on to the railway car in the Djibouti harbor. The photos of Dire Dawa include several street views showing a review of Ethiopian soldiers, church of the Catholic mission, camels carrying construction supplies et al. The road trip from Dire Dawa is documented in a large group of photos showing the truck going with difficulties on backcountry dirt roads, crossing rivers (Gota River, Awash River and many others), and skidding in mud with the travellers and local guides clearing the path for the truck from stones, digging behind the rear wheels, making an improvised road with wooden planks, pushing the truck et al. Several photos have the steep road grades marked on verso (i.e. Descent of Amkelaya [?] 21 % and 22%, another steep hill marked as 27 % et al.). There are also a number of images of the expedition camps set on the sites of the future stations of the railway - Hurso, Erer, Gota, Mulu, Awash, and others, with several portraits of the expedition members, including Armand Savouré - a important French merchant in Ethiopia and an advisor to Emperor Menelik II. Other interesting images show a Catholic mission in Hurso (with the priest standing in front of the hut), the railway bridge near Gota under construction, native water carriers in Erer, numerous portraits of native women and children, an image of dancing during an Ethiopian feast, native villages and markets, two portraits of Somali men and boys, a telephone (?) house in the middle of Ethiopia, Ethiopian guards armed with rifles, guides posing with a hunted gazelle and marabout, and others. Several views of Addis Ababa show the city gates, streets, market square, Catholic mission (including portraits of fathers Julienne and Basil, the native flock, interior of the church, nuns et al.). There are also portraits of the members of the Savouré family in Addis Ababa (children mounted on horses and donkeys and accompanied by native servants, group portrait of Armand Savouré with wife, children and an Ethiopian child). Three views of Harar show a street and the city market (with one showing he walls of Harar). The collection finished with the views of Aden taken in August 1912 and showing naval vessels in the port of Aden, views of the city taken from the sea, and on the way to the Steamer Point. About a dozen of postcard size photos of Ethiopian people show boys in native dress, women and girls singing and dancing, babies, children, girls at a Catholic mission et al. Overall a very interesting collection of original photos from the early days of construction of the first Ethiopian railway. “The Imperial Railway Company of Ethiopia (Compagnie Impériale des Chemins de fer d'Éthiopie or Compagnie Impériale Éthiopienne) was a firm founded in 1894 to build and operate a railway across eastern Ethiopia from the port of Djibouti to the capital of Addis Ababa. It was founded by Alfred Ilg and Léon Chefneux and headquartered in Paris, France. The firm failed in 1906 when political discord halted construction, and it failed to obtain any new capital. The portion it had completed ran from Djibouti to just short of Harar, the principal entrepôt for existing commerce in southern Ethiopia. Its terminus evolved into the city of Dire Dawa, today a larger city than Harar itself. Following the 1906 Tripartite Treaty between Italy, France, and Britain and the 1908 Klobukowski Treaty between France and Ethiopia, Menelek consented to further expansion of the railway, granting the new concession to his personal physician, a black Guadaloupean named Dr. Vitalien, on 30 January 1908. The assets of the former company were then transferred to a new firm, the Franco-Ethiopian Railway (Compagnie du Chemin de Fer Franco-Éthiopien), which received a new concession to finish the line to Addis Ababa. After a year of wrangling with the previous financiers and their governments, construction began anew. By 1915 the line reached Akaki, only 23 kilometers from the capital, and two years later came all the way to Addis Ababa itself. <…> The railway is currently in a partially-abandoned state. There has been no passenger service between Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa since 2008. The service from Djibouti to Dire Dawa ceased in August 2010 but restarted in August 2013” (Wikipedia).