- Description
- 181 photographic prints : silver gelatin; 11 x 14 in. or smaller.
- 67 photographic prints : silver gelatin ;
- Summary
- Mounted photographs depict views of or from doors, gates, or portals in Africa, including the sultan's gate and house and carved doors in Zanzibar; figures in gate looking at body of water, an Arabic house with carved wooden balcony over door; views on Reunion: iron and wooden gates in garden walls, some draped with plants; the bust of "Le Conte de l'Isle in St. Denis; teahouse in the mountains with carved window lattice and iron gate; views in Mombasa: guard at prison with spiked doors; carved gate in a street; doors and a well, garden walls; Beira: Indian cemetery gate with stone carving, suttee visible; Tripoli: woman standing in tiled entrance; street scene in Tunis showing cloaked figures and shuttered doors and windows; Algiers: doors with carved lintels; soldier and horse by gate in Bougie; figures in narrow street in Tlemen, door with tiled roof over it, women on a doorstep in Tangier; Fez: city gate, boys in a doorway in a village near Fez, tiled wall around carved cedar door in the Madersa; carved 15th century gate in the ruins of the Mosque at Mansoura; Marrakesch: 15th century gate, figures in arched way into Madersa, gates and pool in the Minara gardens; other mounted views include doors gates and portals in Kabul; Strasbourg, Lux, Lahore, Nancy, and other European locations, Bombay, Dehli and other Indian locations.
- Unmounted photographs include views from around the world: ferry and one tower of the Golden Gate Bridege during construction; a dog name "Missouri Lill"; harbor and buiilding with clock tower in the Azores; little girl on balcony in Tangiers; gates and doors in unidentified locations; street scene in Port Said; general view of domed roofs of El Ouled in the Sahara; Leptis Magna: excavations, sculpture and carved alabaster columns at the Imperial Palace; Tripoli: street and mosque, woman in doorway and entrance to the citadel; a marabout of the Sahara; man in robes; man looking down from balcony to courtyard in Fez; snake charmer in Morroco; beggar in Mozambique; woman in Madagascar; man climbing rope to ship, Italian Somaliland; Sultan's palace, Mogadishu; fattened 14-year-old bride of Calabar; woman at well in Sierra Leone; men sorting diamonds at Premier Diamond Mine, Transvaal; woman carrying bottle in basket on ther head, Haiti; Jamaican woman with bundle on head; Street scene in San Alvador, girl carrying baby; ruined building in Panama; doors in Cartegena, Colombia, men and woman in Mexico; sculpture of monkey, Mexico; unidentified mission or church [in Latin America]; Afghanistan: entrance to gardens of Shah Jehar, Nimla; gates and door in Kabul; door inside Amiri Palace; boy in Tellahibad; gate of nails, pounded in by people seeking relief from toothache; Triumphal Arch Gates of Tamrud, Kyhber pass.
- Asia: two women in traditional dress [in central Asia]; China: gates, including gate to Ming tomb, Temple of the Western Hills, and to the Imperial palace, Peking; children and parents; Phillipines: iron Spanish gate; docks at Cibu; a basket market; village with thatched buildings; gold mine, Bargro, Cavile, the old fort in Luzon; entrance to Angkor Wat, Cambodia; India: gate at Agra, Gateway to India, Bombay; Dehli: people on steps of Great Mosque, loooking out door to domed mosque; other gates in Dehli; Lahore: Portal of Looking Glasses, "the old entrance way" and looking into city from temple; slumbering snake charmer; gate in the Malay States.
- Europe: wood gate at Skimuseum in Norway; portral in Ratavik, Sweden; group and individual protraits of gypsies in Granada; Alcatraz Gardens in Seville; a water gate in Venice; Chartres Cathedral; gate to French chateau; ornate Asian building at the Colonial Exposition in Paris; Memorial Arch in Bourdeaux; frost bonnets on cacti in gardens of the prince of Manaco, door to Memblin Museum, Amsterdam; arch in Strausbourg; man, head in hands at foot of Spanish Steps, Rome; cloisters in Lisbon; gate leading to Appian way; girls skipping rope in Venice; Albania: man with wares displayed beyond; woman, horse and [minaret] in Kruja; stronghold of Scander Beg in Kruja; boys on a wall at an unidentified location; an older woman sewing; Trieste: steep street; Porto Fino: houses along harbor, buildings surrounding bay, hills above, Yeats Brown Villa; an arcade, Lord Camaroon's portal; Corsica: hotel in Ajaccio, pub entrance and gateway; Church in Corfu; little girls in a street in Greece; woman walking past window grill in Warsaw.
- Images possibly from trip in 1929 through Russia, Central Asia and countries on the Adriatic: primarily doors, portals and gates in Trieste, on the Island of Brione, in Dalmatia, Ragusa and other Yugoslavia locations; pier and castle on Island of Korchula; the Carnavon Library in Albania; a scarecrow; child and cat in garden in Tirana; Albanian "Parliament" building; group in large touring car in the Caucasus; Market in Nizni Novgorod; clergyman[?] near gate in garden wall.
- Subjects
- Note
- Title devised by cataloger.
- Some unmounted prints on 11 x 14 in. paper are printed smaller inside embossed borders and have pencil captions and artists signature in border below image. Mounted prints are captioned in ink, or have typescript text with mss. corrections affixed to the lower edge of each photograph. These are numbered 1-43, with #20 missing. Some of the smaller unmounted prints have pencil or ink captions on verso or in the margins. Some have captions typed on peper and affixed to print. Prints transferred from the Therese Bonney Collection have stamp identifying photographer and her agent, as well as captions in pencil.
- There is some duplication of images, printed on different paper and in different sizes.
- Two images are included in Mott-Smith's book, Africa from port to port, 1929.
- Access (note)
- Admission granted through application to the Office of Special Collections.
- Restricted access;
- Biography (note)
- May Mott-Smith was born in Honolulu in 1879, daughter of a minister of the Hawaiian monarch. A painter, sculptor and jewelry designer as well as photographer, she contributed articles and photographs to magazines and in 1929 published Africa From Port to Port, documenting her travels around the perimeter of Africa. She died in New York in 1952.
- Call Number
- MFZ (Mott-Smith) 95-
- OCLC
- NYPG95-F270
- Author
Mott-Smith, May, photographer.
- Title
Photographs by May Mott-Smith [graphic].
- Imprint
1925?-1935?
- Access
Admission granted through application to the Office of Special Collections.
- Restricted Access
Restricted access; Photography Collection; Permit must be requested at the division indicated.
- Biography
May Mott-Smith was born in Honolulu in 1879, daughter of a minister of the Hawaiian monarch. A painter, sculptor and jewelry designer as well as photographer, she contributed articles and photographs to magazines and in 1929 published Africa From Port to Port, documenting her travels around the perimeter of Africa. She died in New York in 1952.
- Research Call Number
MFZ (Mott-Smith) 95-