 Reference Base  Early photographs of the greater one-horned rhinoceros (R... |
|
Rookmaaker, L.C., 2021. Early photographs of the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in the wild. Pachyderm 62: 98-104
|
|
|
|
| |
| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
History |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
 |
|
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS (Rhinoceros unicornis) IN THE WILD
By Kees Rookmaaker
Hon. Editor of the Rhino Section of Pachyderm
Chief Editor, Rhino Resource Center
rhinorrc@gmail.com
Abstract
Despite recurrent obstacles in photographing animals in the wild, there are a few early examples. A dead rhinoceros shot in Assam by Wilfred Dakin Speer was photographed in 1862. An image of a living rhinoceros in Nepal was published in the Illustrated London News of 1906. This was followed by black-and-white photographs taken in 1909 by Victor Brooke of a rhinoceros attacking his elephant, in 1911 during the tour of King George V in Nepal, and in 1923 by George Miller Dyott for the Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Those taken in 1932 by the Swedish photographer Bengt Berg in Jaldapara, West Bengal, are among the best of early attempts in the wild.
Introduction
Nowadays it is relatively easy to take a photograph of a rhinoceros in the wild. Depending on the species, once the animal is traced, all it takes is a basic camera or even a mobile phone. To take a photograph of professional quality more skill is involved and best results are achieved using a zoom lens, just because it may be hazardous to get close enough. However, it isn’t a major achievement, and tourists like myself are able to get decent snaps using simple equipment.
This is due to technical advances. In the days when photographic equipment and film were in more experimental stages, the cameras were large and cumbersome often requiring tripods, the subject was best “captured” if it remained stationary because a film had to be exposed for several seconds if not minutes, and also had to be at close range to be visible. Even then circumstances might produce an indifferent image while climate and transport could affect the images captured on plates or films.
A rhinoceros in the wild was therefore not an easy subject even if somebody had the rare chance to reach their habitats. It is not going to stand still on command, and it is not going to be happy to be approached within a few meters. To write about a “first ever” photograph in any combination is almost as hazardous as walking up to a wild rhinoceros. In my experience, as soon as the words are written, somebody will try, often successfully, to find an earlier example. That is not as bad as it sounds, at least we will have learned something new about the early days of photography.
Earlier I discovered what must be the first photographs taken of a rhinoceros in the African bush. The explorer James Chapman (1831-1872) took these of a dead black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) on 13 May 1862 on the Botletlie River in central Botswana and on 12 June 1862 near the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (Rookmaaker 2006). Early photographs of the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) were taken in the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park, London, first in 1856 by an unknown photographer, followed in 1864 by Frank Haes (1832-1916) of Haymarket and soon after this by Frederick York (1823-1903) of Notting Hill (Edwards 2012).
In this paper I will highlight an early example of a dead rhinoceros in the Indian jungle, and proceed to rare images of living rhinos photographed in both India and Nepal.
Captain Speer in Assam in 1862
Captain Wilfred Dakin Speer (1835-1867) of Thames Ditton, was an officer in the First Middlesex Regiment in the United Kingdom. He had joined Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in 1858 on a petition regarding the administration of the natural history collection of the British Museum (Darwin 1858). Speer went on an adventurous sporting exhibition from September 1859 to May 1862 to India, crossing the Himalayas into Tibet, returning “with a number of most interesting photographic views of the places he had visited” (Anonymous 1870). He went on a second journey from November 1864 to June 1865.
A photograph “Rhinoceros shot by late Captain Speer in Assam, 1862” (fig. 1) was published in part 5 of the Sports of the World edited by Frederick George Aflalo (1870-1918) in January 1903 illustrating a chapter by Kinloch (1903:164). As there is no reference to the event in the text, it is likely that Aflalo sourced the photograph from the Speer family. The rhino is shown lying on its side with the head facing the camera, surrounded by over 30 native assistants. As Captain Speer is absent from the picture, he is likely the one operating the camera. If the dates are correct, meaning that the photograph was taken in the first months of 1862, this photograph of a dead rhino in the wild is earlier than that attributed to Chapman in Botswana.
The Illustrated London News of 1906
The popular Illustrated London News of 1906 included a page with four photographs of curiosities of big game hunting (Anonymous 1906). They supplied no additional information and the images were credited to “the Illustrations Bureau” of 12 Whitefriars Street, London. This agency probably maintained a large series of photographs, and the provenance of the rhinoceros in the jungle is not recorded in the magazine. One of the photographs shows a rhinoceros in Nepal, standing on th edge of a pond, exhibiting a large forward-sloping horn (fig. 2).
Probably unconnected, there is another reference to a photographer in Nepal around that time. The British consul to Nepal from 1905 to 1916, John Manners-Smith (1864-1920) mentioned that rhinos were reportedly quite common on the Rapti River (Manners-Smith 1909). Francis William Gordon-Canning (1854-1920) of the Pursa Indigo Factory in Champaran, Bihar had visited there with the express goal to take photographs of the rhinoceros.
Victor Brooke in Cooch Behar in 1909
From 11 to 17 February 1909 the Viceroy Gilbert, 4th Earl of Minto (1845-1914) was hunting in the North Kamrup Reserve (now Manas National Park). Among his retinue was his military secretary Victor Reginald Brooke (1873-1914). While out on elephants on Sunday 12 February 1909 Brooke was injured by a rhinoceros, as told by Minto (1934:274): “The same day Victor Brooke had a different and very dangerous adventure. He was always casual as to personal safety, and when he saw a cow rhino and her calf emerge from the jungle he did not shoot but hurriedly grasped his kodak, being anxious to obtain a picture. On sighting the elephant the rhino charged, and these huge beasts met with a tremendous concussion, like two battleships ramming each other; the shock was terrific.” The photograph which Brooke took before the rhino reached the elephant was published a few years later (Brooke 1911). It may not be the clearest image, but definitely one showing unusual action (fig. 3).
King George V in Nepal in 1911
King George V (1865-1936) visited Nepal by the invitation of Maharaja Chandra Shamsher (1863-1929) from 18 to 28 December 1911 (Fortescue 1912, Rookmaaker et al. 2005). There were several photographers in the camp, including Ernest Brooks (1875-1957), George Percy Jacomb Hood (1857-1929) and professionals of the firm of Herzog and Higgins. There are two albums from the collection of Queen Mary in the Royal Commonwealth Society (preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge) containing many photographs, without annotations of dates or photographers. One of the albums “Indian Tour 1911-1912” has a picture of a rhinoceros walking in the grass, with some elephants in the background (QM21, no.219) (fig. 4).
The Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition of 1923
The Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition was organized to collect a series of mammals for the new exhibition spaces of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Led by John Champion Faunthorpe (1871-1929) and Arthur Stannard Vernay (1877-1960), the group spent a week on the Gandak River on the western side of Chitwan, from 10-14 March 1923. The party also included the photographer George Miller Dyott (1877-1960), who was responsible for capturing the events on film (Dyott 1923). He took several photos of a female rhinoceros which had been named ‘Lizzie’ together with her half-grown calf (figs. 5, 6). One was published in the museum’s magazine (Faunthorpe 1924) and another appeared in the Times newspaper of London (Faunthorpe 1923).
Dyott, probably as a first, also took moving pictures. These were compiled on his return as a silent 16 mm movie “Jungle Life in India” lasting 20 minutes, containing a few scenes showing the rhinoceros in the field. The first private view of the movie was on 1 November 1923 at the St. James's Picture Theatre in London, with a lecture by Dyott, and then shown to the public in the Philharmonic Hall for 4 weeks, beginning 5 November (Vernay 1923a, b). The first showing of the movie in the USA was on 21 December 1923, when Faunthorpe presented a lecture in the American Museum of Natural History (Osborn 1923).
Bengt Berg in Bengal in 1932
The Swedish zoologist, photographer and cinematographer Bengt Magnus Kristoffer Berg (1885-1967) had obtained permission to take photographs on the banks of the Torsa River in today’s Jaldapara National Park, West Bengal, India. He spent about a month in the jungle in February 1932, taking pictures of rhinos and tigers with his heavy professional cameras. His black-and-white photographs taken in the jungle in Bengal are stunning, including a male rhino chasing a female, and a mother rhino followed by her young calf (figs. 7, 8). In total 22 different photos of the rhinoceros were published as a result his expedition. A selection of the images was first included, with explanatory text, in a book published in Swedish in 1932, translated into German and Danish, but never into English (Berg 1932, 1933).
Conclusion
Taking a good photograph of a rhinoceros in the wild is a thrilling experience. It always involves a challenge, to get to see the animal and then to get exactly the right exposure. Many great pictures have been taken over the years. The public taste changed from sport hunting trips to photographic safaris. Marius Maxwell (1888-1936) explained that photography of wild animals, including the iconic pachyderms, could become a new way to experience adventure and wonder for wildlife. Maxwell working in Kenya was ahead of his time when he wrote: “Rather it has been my desire to secure photographic records…incidents such as are found in the writings of well-known hunters, and to illustrate these experiences by actual photographs…giv[ing] me opportunities to obtain an accurate shot with the camera instead of the rifle” (Maxwell 1924).
Acknowledgements
The Rhino Resource Center includes the references mentioned in this paper on its website, www.rhinoresourcecenter.com. The RRC is sponsored by SOS Rhino, International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino International.
References
Anonymous. 1870. Obituary notices: Captain Wilfred Dakin Speer. Journal of the Linnean Society of London 10: cviii-cviv.
Anonymous. 1906. Curiosities of big game hunting in India, and a distinguished sportsman. Illustrated London News 1906 February 10: 200.
Berg B. 1932. På jakt efter Enhorningen. P.A. Norstedt & Soners, Stockholm.
Berg B. 1933. Meine Jagd nach dem Einhorn. Rütten und Leuning, Frankfurt am Main.
Brooke V. 1911. Sport akin to that arranged for the King-Emperor. Illustrated London News 139 (30 December 1911): 1113-1115.
Darwin CR. 1858. Memorial of the promoters and cultivators of science on the subject of the proposed severance from the British Museum of its natural history collections, addressed to Her Majesty's Government. House of Commons Papers; Accounts and Papers (XXXIII.499) 456 (23 July): 1-5.
Dyott GM. 1923. After royal game in Nepal: rhinoceros-shooting. Illustrated London News 163 (1923 September 8): 432-435.
Edwards J. 2012. London Zoo from old photographs 1852-1914, second edition. Edwards, London.
Faunthorpe JC. 1923. After big game in India, Anglo-American expedition: stalking rhinoceros on foot. Times (London) 1923 September 7: 11-12, 14.
Faunthorpe JC. 1924a. Jungle life in India, Burma, and Nepal: some notes on the Faunthorpe-Vernay Expedition of 1923. Natural History 24: 174-198.
Kinloch AAA. 1903. The great Indian rhinoceros. In: Aflalo FG. (ed.) The sports of the world. Cassell and Co., London.
Manners Smith J. 1909. Haunts of the Indian rhinoceros. Field 114 (1909 July 24): 177.
Maxwell M. 1924. Stalking big game with a camera in equatorial Africa: with a monograph on the African Elephant. Century Co., New York & London.
Minto MC. 1934. India Minto and Morley 1905-1910: compiled from the correspondence between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State with extracts from her Indian journal. Macmillan, London.
Osborn HF. 1923. Annual report no. 55 for 1923, with information on Vernay-Faunthorpe expedition. American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Rookmaaker LC. 2006. The first photographs of a rhinoceros. Swara 29 (3): 54-55.
Vernay AS. 1923a. The Vernay-Faunthorpe film. Times (London) 1923 November 3.
Vernay AS. 1923b. An Indian big game film. Field 142 (1923 November 8): 667.
EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE INDIAN RHINOCEROS (Rhinoceros unicornis) IN THE WILD
By Kees Rookmaaker
Hon. Editor of the Rhino Section of Pachyderm
Chief Editor, Rhino Resource Center
rhinorrc@gmail.com
Abstract
Despite recurrent obstacles in photographing animals in the wild, there are a few early examples. A dead rhinoceros shot in Assam by Wilfred Dakin Speer was photographed in 1862. An image of a living rhinoceros in Nepal was published in the Illustrated London News of 1906. This was followed by black-and-white photographs taken in 1909 by Victor Brooke of a rhinoceros attacking his elephant, in 1911 during the tour of King George V in Nepal, and in 1923 by George Miller Dyott for the Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Those taken in 1932 by the Swedish photographer Bengt Berg in Jaldapara, West Bengal, are among the best of early attempts in the wild.
Introduction
Nowadays it is relatively easy to take a photograph of a rhinoceros in the wild. Depending on the species, once the animal is traced, all it takes is a basic camera or even a mobile phone. To take a photograph of professional quality more skill is involved and best results are achieved using a zoom lens, just because it may be hazardous to get close enough. However, it isn’t a major achievement, and tourists like myself are able to get decent snaps using simple equipment.
This is due to technical advances. In the days when photographic equipment and film were in more experimental stages, the cameras were large and cumbersome often requiring tripods, the subject was best “captured” if it remained stationary because a film had to be exposed for several seconds if not minutes, and also had to be at close range to be visible. Even then circumstances might produce an indifferent image while climate and transport could affect the images captured on plates or films.
A rhinoceros in the wild was therefore not an easy subject even if somebody had the rare chance to reach their habitats. It is not going to stand still on command, and it is not going to be happy to be approached within a few meters. To write about a “first ever” photograph in any combination is almost as hazardous as walking up to a wild rhinoceros. In my experience, as soon as the words are written, somebody will try, often successfully, to find an earlier example. That is not as bad as it sounds, at least we will have learned something new about the early days of photography.
Earlier I discovered what must be the first photographs taken of a rhinoceros in the African bush. The explorer James Chapman (1831-1872) took these of a dead black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) on 13 May 1862 on the Botletlie River in central Botswana and on 12 June 1862 near the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (Rookmaaker 2006). Early photographs of the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) were taken in the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park, London, first in 1856 by an unknown photographer, followed in 1864 by Frank Haes (1832-1916) of Haymarket and soon after this by Frederick York (1823-1903) of Notting Hill (Edwards 2012).
In this paper I will highlight an early example of a dead rhinoceros in the Indian jungle, and proceed to rare images of living rhinos photographed in both India and Nepal.
Captain Speer in Assam in 1862
Captain Wilfred Dakin Speer (1835-1867) of Thames Ditton, was an officer in the First Middlesex Regiment in the United Kingdom. He had joined Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in 1858 on a petition regarding the administration of the natural history collection of the British Museum (Darwin 1858). Speer went on an adventurous sporting exhibition from September 1859 to May 1862 to India, crossing the Himalayas into Tibet, returning “with a number of most interesting photographic views of the places he had visited” (Anonymous 1870). He went on a second journey from November 1864 to June 1865.
A photograph “Rhinoceros shot by late Captain Speer in Assam, 1862” (fig. 1) was published in part 5 of the Sports of the World edited by Frederick George Aflalo (1870-1918) in January 1903 illustrating a chapter by Kinloch (1903:164). As there is no reference to the event in the text, it is likely that Aflalo sourced the photograph from the Speer family. The rhino is shown lying on its side with the head facing the camera, surrounded by over 30 native assistants. As Captain Speer is absent from the picture, he is likely the one operating the camera. If the dates are correct, meaning that the photograph was taken in the first months of 1862, this photograph of a dead rhino in the wild is earlier than that attributed to Chapman in Botswana.
The Illustrated London News of 1906
The popular Illustrated London News of 1906 included a page with four photographs of curiosities of big game hunting (Anonymous 1906). They supplied no additional information and the images were credited to “the Illustrations Bureau” of 12 Whitefriars Street, London. This agency probably maintained a large series of photographs, and the provenance of the rhinoceros in the jungle is not recorded in the magazine. One of the photographs shows a rhinoceros in Nepal, standing on th edge of a pond, exhibiting a large forward-sloping horn (fig. 2).
Probably unconnected, there is another reference to a photographer in Nepal around that time. The British consul to Nepal from 1905 to 1916, John Manners-Smith (1864-1920) mentioned that rhinos were reportedly quite common on the Rapti River (Manners-Smith 1909). Francis William Gordon-Canning (1854-1920) of the Pursa Indigo Factory in Champaran, Bihar had visited there with the express goal to take photographs of the rhinoceros.
Victor Brooke in Cooch Behar in 1909
From 11 to 17 February 1909 the Viceroy Gilbert, 4th Earl of Minto (1845-1914) was hunting in the North Kamrup Reserve (now Manas National Park). Among his retinue was his military secretary Victor Reginald Brooke (1873-1914). While out on elephants on Sunday 12 February 1909 Brooke was injured by a rhinoceros, as told by Minto (1934:274): “The same day Victor Brooke had a different and very dangerous adventure. He was always casual as to personal safety, and when he saw a cow rhino and her calf emerge from the jungle he did not shoot but hurriedly grasped his kodak, being anxious to obtain a picture. On sighting the elephant the rhino charged, and these huge beasts met with a tremendous concussion, like two battleships ramming each other; the shock was terrific.” The photograph which Brooke took before the rhino reached the elephant was published a few years later (Brooke 1911). It may not be the clearest image, but definitely one showing unusual action (fig. 3).
King George V in Nepal in 1911
King George V (1865-1936) visited Nepal by the invitation of Maharaja Chandra Shamsher (1863-1929) from 18 to 28 December 1911 (Fortescue 1912, Rookmaaker et al. 2005). There were several photographers in the camp, including Ernest Brooks (1875-1957), George Percy Jacomb Hood (1857-1929) and professionals of the firm of Herzog and Higgins. There are two albums from the collection of Queen Mary in the Royal Commonwealth Society (preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge) containing many photographs, without annotations of dates or photographers. One of the albums “Indian Tour 1911-1912” has a picture of a rhinoceros walking in the grass, with some elephants in the background (QM21, no.219) (fig. 4).
The Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition of 1923
The Vernay-Faunthorpe Expedition was organized to collect a series of mammals for the new exhibition spaces of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Led by John Champion Faunthorpe (1871-1929) and Arthur Stannard Vernay (1877-1960), the group spent a week on the Gandak River on the western side of Chitwan, from 10-14 March 1923. The party also included the photographer George Miller Dyott (1877-1960), who was responsible for capturing the events on film (Dyott 1923). He took several photos of a female rhinoceros which had been named ‘Lizzie’ together with her half-grown calf (figs. 5, 6). One was published in the museum’s magazine (Faunthorpe 1924) and another appeared in the Times newspaper of London (Faunthorpe 1923).
Dyott, probably as a first, also took moving pictures. These were compiled on his return as a silent 16 mm movie “Jungle Life in India” lasting 20 minutes, containing a few scenes showing the rhinoceros in the field. The first private view of the movie was on 1 November 1923 at the St. James's Picture Theatre in London, with a lecture by Dyott, and then shown to the public in the Philharmonic Hall for 4 weeks, beginning 5 November (Vernay 1923a, b). The first showing of the movie in the USA was on 21 December 1923, when Faunthorpe presented a lecture in the American Museum of Natural History (Osborn 1923).
Bengt Berg in Bengal in 1932
The Swedish zoologist, photographer and cinematographer Bengt Magnus Kristoffer Berg (1885-1967) had obtained permission to take photographs on the banks of the Torsa River in today’s Jaldapara National Park, West Bengal, India. He spent about a month in the jungle in February 1932, taking pictures of rhinos and tigers with his heavy professional cameras. His black-and-white photographs taken in the jungle in Bengal are stunning, including a male rhino chasing a female, and a mother rhino followed by her young calf (figs. 7, 8). In total 22 different photos of the rhinoceros were published as a result his expedition. A selection of the images was first included, with explanatory text, in a book published in Swedish in 1932, translated into German and Danish, but never into English (Berg 1932, 1933).
Conclusion
Taking a good photograph of a rhinoceros in the wild is a thrilling experience. It always involves a challenge, to get to see the animal and then to get exactly the right exposure. Many great pictures have been taken over the years. The public taste changed from sport hunting trips to photographic safaris. Marius Maxwell (1888-1936) explained that photography of wild animals, including the iconic pachyderms, could become a new way to experience adventure and wonder for wildlife. Maxwell working in Kenya was ahead of his time when he wrote: “Rather it has been my desire to secure photographic records…incidents such as are found in the writings of well-known hunters, and to illustrate these experiences by actual photographs…giv[ing] me opportunities to obtain an accurate shot with the camera instead of the rifle” (Maxwell 1924).
Acknowledgements
The Rhino Resource Center includes the references mentioned in this paper on its website, www.rhinoresourcecenter.com. The RRC is sponsored by SOS Rhino, International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino International.
References
Anonymous. 1870. Obituary notices: Captain Wilfred Dakin Speer. Journal of the Linnean Society of London 10: cviii-cviv.
Anonymous. 1906. Curiosities of big game hunting in India, and a distinguished sportsman. Illustrated London News 1906 February 10: 200.
Berg B. 1932. På jakt efter Enhorningen. P.A. Norstedt & Soners, Stockholm.
Berg B. 1933. Meine Jagd nach dem Einhorn. Rütten und Leuning, Frankfurt am Main.
Brooke V. 1911. Sport akin to that arranged for the King-Emperor. Illustrated London News 139 (30 December 1911): 1113-1115.
Darwin CR. 1858. Memorial of the promoters and cultivators of science on the subject of the proposed severance from the British Museum of its natural history collections, addressed to Her Majesty's Government. House of Commons Papers; Accounts and Papers (XXXIII.499) 456 (23 July): 1-5.
Dyott GM. 1923. After royal game in Nepal: rhinoceros-shooting. Illustrated London News 163 (1923 September 8): 432-435.
Edwards J. 2012. London Zoo from old photographs 1852-1914, second edition. Edwards, London.
Faunthorpe JC. 1923. After big game in India, Anglo-American expedition: stalking rhinoceros on foot. Times (London) 1923 September 7: 11-12, 14.
Faunthorpe JC. 1924a. Jungle life in India, Burma, and Nepal: some notes on the Faunthorpe-Vernay Expedition of 1923. Natural History 24: 174-198.
Kinloch AAA. 1903. The great Indian rhinoceros. In: Aflalo FG. (ed.) The sports of the world. Cassell and Co., London.
Manners Smith J. 1909. Haunts of the Indian rhinoceros. Field 114 (1909 July 24): 177.
Maxwell M. 1924. Stalking big game with a camera in equatorial Africa: with a monograph on the African Elephant. Century Co., New York & London.
Minto MC. 1934. India Minto and Morley 1905-1910: compiled from the correspondence between the Viceroy and the Secretary of State with extracts from her Indian journal. Macmillan, London.
Osborn HF. 1923. Annual report no. 55 for 1923, with information on Vernay-Faunthorpe expedition. American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Rookmaaker LC. 2006. The first photographs of a rhinoceros. Swara 29 (3): 54-55.
Vernay AS. 1923a. The Vernay-Faunthorpe film. Times (London) 1923 November 3.
Vernay AS. 1923b. An Indian big game film. Field 142 (1923 November 8): 667.
|
|
|
File available
details
Original text on this topic: