Although the Horniman has had this album in its collections since the 1980s, it has not been studied or researched in any detail.
Examining the photographs in the album sparked many questions. Who did the album belong to? What can we find out about the places and people photographed? Who were the photographers and how and when were the photographs developed?
The album has now been digitised for the first time and can be viewed online.
The expedition
HMS Challenger set sail from Sheerness in December 1872 and returned home in May 1876. This means that 2022 – 2026 marks the 150th anniversary of the voyage.
The expedition aimed to explore the physical conditions of the deep sea. It was planned to circumnavigate the globe for up to four years on a specially adapted research ship.
Whilst at sea, scientific observations to undertake included:
- measuring the ocean depth,
- taking water temperatures,
- dredging the ocean floor to collect specimens.
They also had to gather information that would advance electric communication around the world.
In 1875 the expedition discovered the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. Through dredging operations, they were able to prove life existed on the deep seabed.
The ship
As well as the ship’s officers and crew, there were six civilian scientists on board including an artist, John James Wild.
To carry out their research they needed specialist equipment, workspaces and storage areas.
The HMS Challenger was originally launched in 1858. It served as a warship for 14 years before being refitted as a research vessel.
The expedition’s route
During it’s time at sea the ship covered almost 69,000 nautical miles. It also called at numerous ports for stays of up to 50 days.
Official report and other accounts
The official report of the scientific results of the voyage was published in 50 volumes between 1880 and 1895.
There are several other sources of information which provide an insight into the voyage from different perspectives, including:
- the diary-style account of William Spry who was the Assistant Chief Engineer
- the notes of the naturalist Henry Nottidge Moseley
- the letters of Joseph Matkin who was the Assistant Steward
- and the letters and diaries of the Zoologist Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm.
Visual records
It is not just the official report that tells us about the scientific results.
Drawings and paintings were made by the official on board artist, John James Wild, as well as by the scientists.
Three official photographers covered different sections of the voyage. They were Caleb Newbold, Frederick Hodgeson and Jesse Lay.
Between them, they produced over 800 photographs. As well as photos taken by the official photographers, some were given to or purchased by members of the crew at various ports.
Groundbreaking photos
One photograph in particular shows two crew members working on the Baillie sounding equipment. This depth-sounding equipment was instrumental in the 1875 discovery of the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is the deepest trench on the Earth’s surface, and the deepest point they discovered is named Challenger Deep.
How do you develop photography on board?
There were many challenges in developing photographs on board a moving vessel.
Provision was made for the photographers. Workrooms were located on the main deck and consisted of a dark room and a light room.
Photographs were not only developed but also replicated on board. The images appeared in scientific publications, and members of the crew were able to purchase photographs for personal use.
The owner of the Horniman album – Thomas Harding
The album in the Horniman collection was donated by the descendants of Thomas Alfred Harding. Thomas was an Engine Room Artificer on board the HMS Challenger.
As well as the album, the Horniman received four wooden clubs; two from South Africa, one from Fiji and one from Oceania.
Inside the album, there is a newspaper clipping from 1927. It features a photograph of Thomas and his wife Ellen celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.
Thomas was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1843. He married Ellen in 1867; they had five children born between 1868 and 1878. By 1871, the family was living in Portsea, Portsmouth and Thomas’ profession was recorded in the census as ‘Sea Fitter and Bellhanger’.
He joined the Royal Navy in 1872 and served on board HMS Challenger for the entire voyage. For the first few months, he was ‘Acting Engine Room Artificer’. In June 1873 he became ‘Engine Room Artificer’, the rank he retained for the rest of the voyage.
His naval career continued for 20 years on various vessels including HMS Asia and HMS Alert. In 1892 he retired from the service as Chief Engine Room Artificer.
After becoming a naval pensioner, Thomas lived in Wiltshire. He was living in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset when he died in 1936.
What is an Engine Room Artificer?
HMS Challenger’s engines were powered by steam. In addition to the engineers, there were artificers, stokers and coal trimmers employed in the engine room.
The artificer needed a good understanding of the workings of engines and boilers, and to be able to read various gauges and regulate water flow.
Order and locations of the photographs in Thomas Harding’s album
It seems most likely that Thomas acquired the photographs whilst on board and pasted them into an album after he returned home.
Most of the photographs have pencil notes as to location but there are no dates. They are in an approximate order, rather than being strictly chronological.
We do not know whether all the photographs taken by the three official photographers on board were made available to the crew. Nor do we know how Thomas Harding made his selection. His album does not, for example, contain any photographs from the European sections of the voyage, either outbound or inbound.
The 1874 photographs start with icebergs but after arriving in Australia in 1874, the photographs are of warmer climes. The images are mostly of Islands, including Tonga and Fiji, the Aru and Kai Islands to the west of New Guinea (now part of Indonesia) and the Philippines.
Most of the photographs in the album are dated to 1875. They include images from:
- the Philippines
- New Guinea (including the Admiralty Islands)
- Japan
- Honolulu and other ports in Hawaii (previously known as the Sandwich Islands)
- Tahiti
- and Valparaiso in Chile.
The 1876 photographs cover only the first two months when the vessel transited the Straits of Magellan at the southern tip of South America. There is one photograph from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands and several of Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay.
There are no photographs of places on the remainder of the voyage back to Sheerness where HMS Challenger arrived on 26 May 1876.
The subject matter of the photographs
The album contains the full range of photographs known from other sources. These include the ship at sea and in port, landscapes, seascapes, harbour views, urban locations, island life, plants and people.
There are posed groups of visitors to the vessel often with members of the crew. The portraits of individual people are mainly grouped at the back of the album. They are from Tahiti, Terra del Fuego, Honolulu, and the Admiralty Islands.
Photographs that are known to have been bought are also present, including those of the Mikado and Empress of Japan. The album has photographs of paintings by the official artist, John James Wild for example his sketch of the ship at St. Paul’s Rocks.
Now that the album is digitised, we hope it enables descendants from the communities represented to engage with these images.
We recognise that the 19th-century Western gaze presented in many of these images is problematic and the fact people remain unnamed in the photos further re-enforces these perspectives.
Acknowledgements
In writing this blog we gratefully acknowledge the work and enthusiasm of the speakers and participants in the recent ‘Challenger’ conference organised by the Royal Museums Greenwich and in particular the research undertaken by Stephanie Hood, Erika Jones and Philip Pearson.