The first eight photographs record the sites of Stanley's first days in New Orleans in February 1859. The Windermere's cabin boy jumped ship after an awful passage from Liverpool and embarked on a new life in America: 'Though about thirty-five years have elapsed since I first stood uppon the Levee of the Crescent City, scarcely one of all my tumultuous sensations of pleasure, wonder and curiosity has been forgotten by me.' (Autobiography, p.81).
After a night on the Levee in the shadows of a pile of cotton bales, he met a kindly cotton merchant, Henry Hope Stanley, in front of No.3 store, Tchoupitoulas Street, was offered a job at Speake and McCreary's store and board and lodging at Mrs William's boarding house on Thomas Street. These photographs were taken when the Stanleys revisited these sites in 1891: 'Early in 1891, I visited New Orleans, with my husband. He tried to find the houses and places he had known as a boy...' (Autobiography, p.93, footnote). Their circular format matches those taken when he was retracing his boyhood in Wales (see lot 1).