Ethnological Photographic Gallery of the Various Races of Man

Abstract

THE science of anthropology owes not a little to the art of photography. It is true that in previous times some few artists took the trouble to draw careful race-portraits. Catlin's American Indians (particularly the large copies) and Burchell's Hottentots and Bushmen, were among those of real value. But most engravings of race-types to be found in books were worthless, either wanting the special characters of the race, or absurdly caricaturing them. Now-a-days, little ethnological value is attached to any but photographic portraits, and the skill of the collector lies in choosing the right individuals as representatives of their nations. Thus the great Anthropologisch-Ethnologisches Album of Carl Dammann of Hamburg, completed some months go, is one of the most important contributions ever made to the science of man. Consisting of fifty plates, portfolio size, with ten to twenty photographs on each plate, it goes far toward an adequate representation of man in all his varieties. A copy may be seen at the Anthropological Institute, but its cumbrousness and cost (18l.) are beyond the limits of most private libraries. It is therefore satisfactory that the publishers have now brought out a smaller educational atlas, price 3l. 3s containing from 150 to 200 portraits, in a binding suitable for a drawing-room book. We wish it all success, for it will make new anthropologists wherever it goes.

Ethnological Photographic Gallery of the Various Races of Man.

By C. F. W. Dammann. (London: Trübner and Co.)