'Pygmies of Central Africa'

1 portrait of Sir Lees Knowles

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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'Pygmies of Central Africa'

by Benjamin Stone
platinum print, 1905
6 1/8 in. x 8 in. (157 mm x 203 mm) image size
Given by House of Commons Library, 1974
Photographs Collection
NPG x30034

Artistback to top

  • Sir (John) Benjamin Stone (1838-1914), Politician and photographer. Artist or producer associated with 1436 portraits, Sitter in 28 portraits.

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This portraitback to top

This is a historical work of art which reflects the attitudes and viewpoints of the time in which it was made. Whilst these may differ from today's attitudes, this image is an important historical document.

Traveller and writer James J. Harrison (1857–1923) brought six Pygmies to Britain from the Ituri Forest region in the Congo. Within five days of their arrival in Britain, the Pygmies appeared at the Hippodrome Theatre in Leicester Square, London, supported by their Swahili-speaking interpreter William Hoffman (1867–1941), a former servant to H.M. Stanley.

The group was photographed at the House of Commons and less formally, in their stage costumes, presumably at the back of the Hippodrome. Sir (John) Benjamin Stone (1838–1914) was a prolific amateur photographer, wealthy Birmingham industrialist and Conservative MP. The Gallery holds 2000 of Stone’s Parliamentary photographs taken between 1897 and 1910. The photographs were all given by the House of Commons Library in 1974.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rolley, Katrina; Aish, Caroline, Fashion in Photographs 1900-1920, 1992, p. 58

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Events of 1905back to top

Current affairs

Following turmoil over the issue of Free Trade, Balfour resigns and calls an election, believing that the Liberals will be defeated. However, he is mistaken and Henry Campbell-Bannerman replaces him as the Liberal government Prime Minister.
The foundation of the Ulster Unionist Council, established to campaign against Home Rule, marks the birth of the Ulster Unionist party in Northern Ireland with the Duke of Abercorn as the first elected president.

Art and science

The Bloomsbury group of artists and intellectuals begin to hold informal gatherings at the home of Vanessa and Virginia Stephen. The group includes the artist Duncan Grant, biographer Lytton Strachey, and the art critics Clive Bell and Roger Fry.
The German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein has his 'annus mirabilis', publishing groundbreaking papers on the nature of light and motion, including his relation of mass and energy in the equation e = mc2.

International

Massacre of more than 100 workers at a peaceful demonstration by troops in St Petersburg becomes known as 'Bloody Sunday'. The event sparks the 1905 Revolution, with uprisings and peasant revolts in other cities, leading the Tsar to issue the October Manifesto, pledging moderate reform, including the establishment of an elected 'duma' (government), which only partially appeases imperial opposition. Still fighting Japan, the internal agitation weakens the imperial army.

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