Titled: "Collection anthropologique du Prince Roland Bonaparte."

Two albumen prints of someone's arm and hand in an uncommon pose. The photographed person is subject of an anthropological study. Prince Roland Bonaparte took photographs at various international exhibitions the late 19th century. His photographs were published privately as portfolios of mounted albumen prints. These portfolios were presented to scientific societies around the world (Elizabeth Edwards, 2008). According to a pencil note, this photo is linked to Malaysia, but probably photographed in Europe at one of these exhibitions.

In the left photo, a photographic headrest can be seen in the background, next to the elbow.

Roland Napoléon Bonaparte, 6th Prince of Canino and Musignano (1858 – 1924) was a French prince and president of the Société de Géographie from 1910 until his death. He was a grandson of Lucien Bonaparte, Emperor Napoleon I's younger brother.

Bonaparte's work is grounded in the anthropology of his time, which focussed on the documentation of physical characteristics, and in particular on shape and dimensions of the skull as a means of establishing relations between the human races. (Christopher Wahren, 2006)

In 1884, Bonaparte was part of a scientific expedition that photographed and anatomically measured the Sami inhabitants of Northern Norway. The following year he was photographing Aboriginal Australians brought to Europe and the US to be studied by anthropologists and exhibited by the general public.
This 19th century way of working shows very little respect. The presented photos are a silent witness to this inhumane approach.

Albumen prints: left ca. 20 x 14,3 cm and right ca. 20,7 x 13,9 cm
Original mount ca. 31,4 x 40,6 cm

ca. 1884