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ALICE PIKE
Two cartes de visites portraits of Alice Pike, the larger with Alice in full figure standing by a chair, 165 x 105mm. by L.Pierson, Paris (some damage to edges and staining), the smaller portrait, head and shoulders, 105 x 60mm., by Mora 707 Broadway, [New York].
A poignant reminder of Stanley's second great love. These two carte de visites were given to Stanley by Alice, the first image taken in Paris and given to him in London, late Spring 1874, the second given to him in New York, July 1874. Stanley met the Pike family at the Langham Hotel in April 1874, and fell head over heels in love with Alice the youngest daughter. That summer he saw her almost every day, he was 33, she was 17. She went to Paris for her sister's wedding returning via London to New York. Two weeks later Stanley followed her to New York, proposed to her and was accepted. Mrs. Pike insisted the marriage must await his return from Africa. Stanley named his boat the Lady Alice after her, and this damp-stained French carte de visite was carried by him, wrapped in an oilskin throughout the Anglo-American Trans-Africa Expedition. The first photograph to be taken down the Congo River! He sent Alice many letters from Africa, but unfortunately Alice did not wait for him and married Albert Clifford Barnes, an industrialist from Dayton, Ohio. On his return from Africa in 1877 he was heartbroken. She regretted her decision in later life.
cf.Bierman pp.155-157. Hall pp.20-26 (2)
Two cartes de visites portraits of Alice Pike, the larger with Alice in full figure standing by a chair, 165 x 105mm. by L.Pierson, Paris (some damage to edges and staining), the smaller portrait, head and shoulders, 105 x 60mm., by Mora 707 Broadway, [New York].
A poignant reminder of Stanley's second great love. These two carte de visites were given to Stanley by Alice, the first image taken in Paris and given to him in London, late Spring 1874, the second given to him in New York, July 1874. Stanley met the Pike family at the Langham Hotel in April 1874, and fell head over heels in love with Alice the youngest daughter. That summer he saw her almost every day, he was 33, she was 17. She went to Paris for her sister's wedding returning via London to New York. Two weeks later Stanley followed her to New York, proposed to her and was accepted. Mrs. Pike insisted the marriage must await his return from Africa. Stanley named his boat the Lady Alice after her, and this damp-stained French carte de visite was carried by him, wrapped in an oilskin throughout the Anglo-American Trans-Africa Expedition. The first photograph to be taken down the Congo River! He sent Alice many letters from Africa, but unfortunately Alice did not wait for him and married Albert Clifford Barnes, an industrialist from Dayton, Ohio. On his return from Africa in 1877 he was heartbroken. She regretted her decision in later life.
cf.Bierman pp.155-157. Hall pp.20-26 (2)
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