Photograph Album of the African Research Survey.

N.p.: N.p., [ca. 1935-36]. Large (13 x 10 1/2 inches) album bearing 188 original photographs of place and people in Africa in the 1930s. The album is divided into two section. The first section has 56 original photographs measuring 6 1/2 x 4 5/8 inches. The second part has 132 photographs measuring 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches. Virtually all have captions in white. This count does not reflect the missing photographs (i.e. captions without photographs); two in the front part and 1 in the back part. Contemporary album of mottled brown boards. Custom slipcase with printed paper cover label.The photographer who undertook this journey covered vast distances and the original photographs are just as disparate. Locales as disparate as Lome (Togo), Northern Ghana, Mali, Algeria, Nigeria, Dakar and Dahomey. Most show activities and people. Two show the Bidon 5 Weather Station in Algeria (surely just put up). Another shows 6 scientists [?] with the man in the middle holding two chimpanzees. It is likely that the album was compiled by medical/environmental researcher Dr. E. B. Worthington of the Freshwater Biological Association in England. In the rear is a manilla envelope addressed to him as well as a loose photograph bearing his copyright on the verso. "In 1930 Worthington married a trained geographer and talented pianist, Stella Johnson, with whom three years later he published a book on The Inland Waterways of Africa. From 1933 to 1937 he took part in the African Research Survey, for which he was awarded the Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He was secretary to and first full-time director of the Freshwater Biological Association 1937–46. He returned to Africa in the late 1940s as science and development advisor. He was deputy scientific director for the Nature Conservancy 1957–65, and scientific director of the International Biological Programme (IBP) 1964–74.The conception of the African Survey emerged from a series of conferences held at Oxford University to coincide with the Rhodes Memorial Lectures. The African Survey's emphasis on science and its desire for colonial reform were the common threads that held the project together during its many transformations. The institute's redirection had as much to do with “watertight” compartments of knowledge as it did with institutional and personal politics. The creation of the Scientific Sub-Committee formalized what had already been a two-tiered structure in the African Survey's organization. Generally, throughout its execution, the African Survey's leadership were bound to their original objective of developing a “permanent scheme of research” that could add to the study and management of Africa's imperial problems. "A decade-long endeavor (1929-38), the African Research Survey was designed to examine the extent to which "modern" knowledge was being applied to African problems. It served as a main authority for consultation on the part of the British colonial policy architects; and gave an impetus to British development schemes until the era of decolonization." (H. Tilley)