The Lyon Falkener Archive. Big Game Hunting in British East Africa.

FALKENER, Lyon

Edité par 1901 - 3.

A propos de cet article

A truly remarkable archive from a hitherto little known big game hunter. With his complete hunting diary on 388 pages, closely written in an entirely legible hand. With 3 folio albums of mostly hunting photographs containing around 450 images, plus about 150 loose photographs and c. 560 negatives, most of which would be represented by prints; the archive includes Falkener's indexes to his photographs with descriptive notes. Together with a number of diaries and notebooks, receipts and invoices for purchases including hunting requisites. 23 letters to his sister Ethel [Bet], some with illustrations, mostly recounting his experiences, as well as a letter to each of his other sisters and his mother. Falkener's game licenses and licence to bear arms issued by the Uganda/East Africa Protectorate together with his manuscript return of game shot 1901 - 3 as issued to the licensing authority. With a packet containing 2 hairs from an elephant's tail. "I love getting quite close up to game & not shooting unless one has a chance at a specially good head- for in this way one gets to know the habits of the beasts- most sportsmen out here do butcher terribly." "It is ripping getting close up to game & then simply watching them without shooting, one has all the pleasure of outwitting them- one enjoys their society & finally one leaves them, feeling one has done them no harm." Cambridge educated Dr. Lyon Falkener, was a Medical Officer on the Uganda Railway, a 660 mile line connecting Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to Port Florence on Lake Victoria. Built primarily with Indian labour, conditions were particularly harsh, resulting in some 2500 deaths and earning the name the "Lunatic Express." Falkener had a meticulous scientific mind, evident in this archive which consists of three substantial photograph albums, nine diaries, numerous negatives as well as many letters and ephemera relating to his time in Uganda. Falkener's chief passion in Africa lay in the pursuit and hunting of big game and, whilst his obsession with the stalking and killing of lions, elephants and many other African animals and birds may offend modern sensibilities, his passion for these pursuits provides us with an extraordinarily complete record of a world which now appears to be particularly remote. The three photograph albums, loose photographs and negatives, all annotated and dated in Dr. Falkener's precise hand, attest to a passion not only for the hunting of big game but also for recording the splendours of Uganda's natural world. They contain not only photographs of animals killed but also numerous images of the African porters and trackers who enabled him to pursue the big game which were his chief passion. Other photographs record the various dramas of the Uganda railway; the locomotives, the building of bridges and the inevitable accidents and derailments to which Falkener was often called to administer treatment to the injured. Both the fine railway photographs as well as the portraits of Masai warriors are the work of William Dempster Young, whose studio was at Mombasa, and who was employed as photographer to the Uganda Railway Construction Company. As a sad footnote two of Dempster's children were killed on the very railway which he recorded. "Summary Of Game killed & Rifles in British East Africa Protectorate." The most valuable part of the archive is undoubtedly Dr Falkener's manuscript hunting diary which has never previously been published, and which extends to over 500 manuscript pages relating to his hunting of game in Uganda between 30th March 1901 and 8th September 1903. In minute, quite obsessive detail Falkener provides us with an account of animals stalked, killed and skinned and eaten, during this period. He describes the rifles used as well as the ammunition, the distances covered, the reliance on the native scouts and beaters, the successes and failures of each day and the feelings occasioned by the vicissitudes of big game hunting. The diary moves.

N° de réf. du vendeur 48407

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Lyon Falkener Archive. Big Game Hunting in British East Africa.
• Éditeur: 1901 - 3.
• Reliure: Couverture souple