Caribbean Gallery

MARTINIQUE - Type et Costume Créole, ca. 1910. Creator: Cochet

The title of this French colonial postcard (GUADELOUPE. - Type n° 7) exemplifies the standard naming structure that categorized "exotic" native subjects in the form of ethnic and occupational "types." Presenting the image subjects in this way conveyed the perception of them as "tame" colonial subjects capable of assimilation into European ways of life. The colonial postcard, popular in the first two decades of the 20th century, came to represent both the technological triumphs of western photography - in printing and mass production - and the political triumphs of European conquest and expansion. These postcards also promoted tourism to the French Caribbean, painting the region as a safe, favorable, and exotic travel destination.The woman in this image wears a traditional, five-piece French Caribbean formal ensemble called a douillette, which is derived from the grand robe worn by early French settlers. Prior to Emancipation, dress codes required enslaved women to wear a chemise jupe, an informal bodice and skirt ensemble. Douillettes would have been worn by mulattas and free black women

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St Thomas's West Indies, from Weight's Wharf, 1844. Creator: Unknown

St Thomas's West Indies, from Weight's Wharf, 1844. The New York American publishes an extract of a letter dated from this island, April 14, which states that the negroes had broken into Aux Cayes, and murdered the whites and coloured; that the President Herard had been murdered; and that a similar attempt at Port-au-Prince was apprehended...everything was in confusion - civil war raging through the country.
There had been a battle in the neighbourhood of Aux Cayes between the Government troops and the insurgents, which resulted in the defeat of the former; and subsequently the principal part of the town was in the possession of the rebels. There was great distress and terror experienced. The women and children had taken refuge on board the American and English vessels in port. It was supposed that they would fire the town, the whole island being in a state of uproar...St. Thomas is one of the three Danish Virgin Islands, and is about twelve miles long...Most of the white inhabitants are of Dutch origin, and Dutch is the common language. The plantations have yielded in one year 20,000 cwt. of sugar, 54,000 gallons of rum, 18,000 gallons of molasses, and some cotton. But as large tracts are unfit for the production of colonial articles, maize, ground provisions, and fruits are cultivated to a considerable extent...Our illustration has been engraved from an effective drawing, by Lieutenant Bellairs, R.N.'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I

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Sir H. Sloane, (1660-1753), 1830. Creator: Unknown

Sir H. Sloane, (1660-1753), 1830. Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) Irish physician, naturalist and collector whose donations founded the British Museum, British Library and Natural History Museums in London. Elected to the Royal College of Physicians by age 27 he travelled to Jamaica, witnessed cruelty to slaves and discovered cocoa. From "Biographical Illustrations", by Alfred Howard. [Thomas Tegg, R. Griffin and Co., J. Cumming, London, Glasgow and Dublin, 1830]

© The Print Collector/Heritage Images