John William Lindt’s Curious Engagement with New Guinea

Peck, Julia ORCID: 0000-0001-5134-2471 (2007) John William Lindt’s Curious Engagement with New Guinea. In: Imperial Curiosity: Objects, Representations and Knowledges, 27th-29th June 2007, UTAS, Hobart, Tasmania, Autralia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper aims to assess the multiple discourses that John William Lindt’s photographic interest in New Guinea encompassed, connecting the picturesque, commercial and anthropological interests evident in his images. Lindt travelled to New Guinea in 1885 with Sir Peter Scratchley to photograph the indigenous inhabitants of New Guinea when New Guinea’s status as a British Protectorate was finally established. Lindt’s resulting photographs circulated in a number of forms, including photograph albums, large exhibition prints and postcards as well as in the book Picturesque New Guinea (1887). Lindt was a supreme promoter and it is likely that he had promotional interests in mind, encouraging acceptance and interest in New Guinea as a commercial enterprise and as a site of scholarly and anthropological study. This paper will explore the discourses that Lindt’s photographs and writings intersected with, examining notions of indigenous subjectivity. This will also be put in the context of Lindt’s papers for the Australasian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society (Victoria), which promoted New Guinea as a site for investment and agricultural development. Lindt’s images will be assessed in the light of his extensive written statements but will be placed alongside potential signs of indigenous subjectivity.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	John William Lindt, New Guinea, Sir Peter Scratchley, Anthropology, Travel Photography
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DU Oceania (South Seas) G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology T Technology > TR Photography
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Depositing User:	Julia Peck
Date Deposited:	30 Mar 2016 10:05
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 09:24
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3315

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