1903 Office (2 results)
Published by The ten items from the Home Office Whitehall S.W. London One from the other nine from 1897, 1895
- Signed
- Manuscript
Seller: Richard M. Ford Ltd, London, United KingdomRichard M. Ford Ltd
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
£ 220.00
£ 4.50 shippingShips from United Kingdom to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
The collection of ten items (six ALsS, two TLsS, one secretarial letter signed, and one letter from Dryhurst) is in good overall condition, with light signs of age and wear. Digby's two typed letters, both 1897, are both formal letters on behalf of the Home Secretary, regarding the Radnorshire Police Enquiry, the first being the… 'official thanks' (see below). The content would appear to largely concern the Radnorshire Police Enquiry. There are a couple of references to 'Mackenzie' (Muir Mackenzie, Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor, three of whose letters to Harington are offered elsewhere), 'the A. G.' (Attorney General) and 'Ld C.' (Lord Chancellor). The earliest of the ALsS is also the longest (3 August 1895; 7pp., 12mo). In it Digby lists three written items he is sending, with an offer to send more., before continuing: 'The Proceedings of the recent Conference at Paris are not likely to be published for some time, but Mr. Ruggles-Brise, Chairman of the Prisons Board, who was the English Delegate to the Conference, tells me that he hopes to complete his Report to the Secretary of State in the Course of next month; and when it is ready, I will send you a copy for your confidential use. This will probably tell you all you will want to know of the scope of the discussion and the nature of the decisions arrived at. | I shall also be glad to send you an order to visit a Convict Prison, if you will let me know to which Portland or Dartmoor it wd. Be most convenient to you to go.' On 12 April 1897 he thanks him for a letter 'which is important [] I cannot imagine who can have got the impression that there was the smallest amount of dissatisfaction about your conduct of the Radnorshire case. Certainly nothing that any one in the Office has said or thought can have given rise to it. The absolute contrary is the truth. The official thanks which were sent you is the sincere expression of what we all feel as to your mode of dealing with a very difficult & disagreeable matter.' A letter of 8 July 1897 begins: 'Many thanks for your letter to which though I cannot criticize in detail you will have gathered from what I said the other night I do not wholly dissent.' The letter from Frederick John Dryhurst (d.1931), written in 1895, concerns one Harington 'in reference to the Home Office Circular as to the Medical Examination of prisioners'. From the Harington papers.
- Map
Seller: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, Brooklyn, NY, U.S.A.Geographicus Rare Antique Maps
Contact seller4-star sellerVery good. Mounted on linen. Folds into original slipcase. Size 21 x 29 Inches. This is a 1903 British Ordnance Survey / War Office folding map of Boran, today the northeastern portion of Kenya bordering Ethiopia and Somalia. It was made during the 'Scramble for Africa,' when European colonial powers rushed to occupy and claim t…erritory. However, the harsh climate and resistance of local pastoralists to outside rule meant the region long remained a distant frontier to imperial powers. A Closer Look Depicting a large portion of what is now northeastern Kenya, the depicted area stretches along the eastern shore of Lake Turkana (here Lake Rudolf) and the northernmost reaches of the Kenyan Rift Valleys, roughly up to the modern borders between Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Lake Turkana was likely part of the Upper Nile system at one point historically but has been severed from it by changes in the landscape due to volcanic eruptions (animal species found along the Nile, such as the Nile crocodile, are abundant around Lake Turkana). Lake Suguta (here as Sugota) is a mostly dried up saline, alkaline lake, of which the remnant part is called Lake Logipi. The landscape is defined by mountains (with elevation provided here in feet) and sporadic water sources (marked by small circles with a 'W' next to them), essential for anyone attempting to survive in this environment. Fascinating detail is provided on the terrain and groups inhabiting or moving through different areas. The map and margins include some handwritten annotations, most notably the inclusion of 'Laikipia Post' towards bottom-left. A Frontier between Empires At the time of this map's production, Ethiopia (Abyssinia) maintained its independence and unity as a kingdom, though central authority was heavily contested by local rulers. Southern Somalia was ruled by the Sultanate of the Geledi, which had become an Italian protectorate the year before this map's publication and was later incorporated into Italian Somaliland (El Wak, towards bottom-right, today straddles the border between Kenya and Somalia). A region known for its unforgiving climate of active volcanoes, arid shrubland, and intense heat, several pastoralist groups (generally speakers of Nilotic or Cushitic languages) lived here, grazing flocks on the shrubland (the English name used here refers to the pastoralist Borana people). In the years before this map was made, pastoralist groups suffered tremendously due to epidemics. First, their cattle were decimated by bovine diseases that killed off the vast majority, then the herders experienced drought, famine, and smallpox, killing a large proportion of the Maasai population, for instance. A remote region even at the outset of the 19th century for the British colonials, traveling here was very dangerous. Both the climate and resistance by pastoralists to outside interference (at this time, Maasai were being displaced further to the south to create large estates for white settlers from South Africa) created a hostile environment. A note below the legend explains that none of the lands included on the map had been surveyed. Occasional expeditions by Europeans and Americans traversed these lands, most notably the one led by American physician Arthur Donaldson Smith in 1894 - 1895. Smith published an account of the trip in 1897 titled Through Unknown African Countries: the First Expedition from Somaliland to Lake Rudolf . The British only established a loose administration for the territory shown here in the 1910s and much of this region is now protected national parkland, though the pastoralists, who have consistently resisted government efforts at sedentarization, maintain grazing rights. British East Africa The British presence in East Africa came first in the form of missionaries, from the 1840s, and then commercial ventures in the 1880s. In that critical decade for African history, both the British and Germans set their eyes on the Sultanate of Zanzibar and the inte.
