STANLEY IN CAPE TOWN, OCTOBER 1877

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STANLEY IN CAPE TOWN, OCTOBER 1877

Views of Cape Town and its suburbs, November, 1877: a presentation album of 49 albumen prints given to Stanley by Richard William Murray, a Cape journalist, commemorating Stanley's visit to Cape Town, October-November 1877, on his return from Boma to Zanzibar after the Anglo-American trans-Africa expedition, 1874-1877. The album signed 'J.B. Barnard/photographer's over the photographer's Cape Town studio stamp' and inscribed 'Yours very truly/R.W. Murray/Cape Town. /4th November 1877' on the verso of the first leaf, contemporary half calf album stamped in gilt on the upper cover 'H.M. Stanley/from/R.W. Murray; together with a large framed gelatin silver print by Barnard signed and titled 'Mr. STANLEY AND HIS ARAB GUARD/BARNARD REG OCT 1877,' in the plate, 18 x 29¼in. (457 x 743mm.) the photograph of Stanley and his men taken in the gardens at Admiralty House, Simonstown.

A manuscript address from the Mayor and people of Cape Town (530 x 360mm.), inscribed 'Town House, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope 24 (added in) October 1877 and signed by the Deputation of the Town council including John Philip, the Mayor, with seal of Cape Town, framed and glazed.

Stanley accompanied his surviving men from the Tran-Africa expedition home to Zanzibar from Boma, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope. From Boma the party rested up at Luanda in September, and were given free transport by the H.M.S. Industry, which had to stop at Simonstown for a short refit, leaving Stanley and his party to stay in Cape Town from October to November 1877. The album of photographs opens with a group photograph of 'Stanley and group of Arabs in Botanic Gardens' [Cape Town], and the large framed print by the Cape photographer Barnard, shows Stanley and his men again in Cape Town. The latter was erronerously captioned 'Stanley and his men at Zanzibar 1877' in his autobiography (1909).

The donor of the album was probably R.W. Murray Jnr., a journalist in the Cape and son of the newspaper proprietor R.W. Murray (1819-1908). (3)

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Lot Essay

A manuscript address from the Mayor and people of Cape Town (530 x 360mm), inscribed 'Town House, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope 24 (added in) October 1877 and signed by the Deputation of the Town council including John Philip, the Mayor, with seal of Cape Town, framed and glazed.

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