War Photographs from Samoa 1899

U.S. Marines with naval gun, Upolu, Samoa, 1899, published by Kerry and Co

Tradition in Samoa dictated that leadership of the islands was to be invested in a hereditary chief, but in the 1880s these claims to power were anything but certain. Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in Samoa during this period of turmoil, commented that Europeans, used to a history of kings and queens, tended to leap to the conclusion that the office of high chief is absolute. In fact the office in Samoa was elective and held in many ways on condition of the holder's behaviour and attendance to his many obligations. This confusion was to have ongoing ramifications in the late nineteenth century as European powers asserted their claims to land and political power across the three major islands of Samoa.

In 1881, Laupepa was annointed king on the basis of his holding of three of the five names (Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii) which covered the principality of Samoa. However the two other chiefs who had claims to these highly significant titles, Tamasese who held the name Tuiaana and Mata'afa who held Tuiatua, were not completely satisfied with the arrangement. In an effort to maintain the peace each was given the role of 'vice-king' to be held for two year periods.

This situation provided the seeds of discord amongst the Samoans, but a greater threat to the peace of the island was the German, British and American settlers pursuing their commercial interests (particularly the German interests of the firm of Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu Hamburg ( DH&PG.)) alongside these traditional relationships.

The centre of all this activity was on the island of Upolu at the port of Apia where Samoans, Germans, Americans and Englishmen all resided. Perhaps the best description of the state of these interests is to be found at the beginning of Stevenson's book, A Footnote to History,

Here, then, is a singular state of affairs: all the money, luxury, and business of the kingdom centred in one place; that place excepted from the native government and administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding it not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them like a bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own end.

European intrigue exacerbated existing tensions which erupted in 1885 and led to civil war amongst the Samoans and fighting between the Germans on one side and the Americans and the British on the other. The German Counsel Dr. Stuebel entered into an agreement with Malietoa and then advocated the deposing of the existing Samoan government. However Malietoa and Tamasese secretly approached the English offering them the islands as a Protectorate. When the Germans found out they sought to replace Malietoa and, overlooking the obvious choice of Mata'afa, selected Malietoa's accomplice Tamasese as their man.

Tamasese, supplied with weapons by Germans and Americans, raised his flag on January the 28th 1886, Malietoa was forced from Mulinuu, the seat of his royalty and raised his flag in Apia. Here he was confronted by the German Consel Dr. Stuebel who, with the aid of ten men from the German cruiser Albatross forcibly took down his flag. Europe and America sent a delegation to sort out the mess and a lull in hostilities ensued which lasted for nearly a year. But by August 1887 tensions had increased again and no less than five German warships were stationed in the harbour at Apia. On the 25 August 700 Germans came ashore and hoisted the German flag above the Government House in Apia.

In September 1888 a large group of Samoans revolted against Tamasese and the German Government. By December 1888 skirmishes were erupting across the islands and tensions between the European warships in Apia harbour were at their height. On the 21st the German ship the Olga shelled and burned the village of Vailele. By March 1889 the harbour was crowded with three American ships in Apia bay, the Nipsic; the Vandalia and the Trenton, three German ships, the Adler; the Eber and the Olga; and one British, the Calliope. In addition there were six merchant-men, ranging from twenty-five to five-hundred tons, and a number of small craft which further encumbered the anchorage. On the 15 March a hurricane struck and the Eber went down on the reef with nearly 80 drowned, the Nipsce was beached on the sand escaping with a few lives lost, the Adler was lifted onto the reef which broke her back and twenty lives were lost, the Vandalia also went down in the storm after colliding with the Olga losing 43 lives, while the Trenton only lost one life.

The Germans in the wake of this disaster agreed again to talks with the British and the Americans. This allowed tensions to quieten down and a treaty document was signed in which Malietoa was recognised as king by the European forces.

However this was against the wishes of many Samoans who saw another chief, Mata'afa, as the real hero of the conflict. The agreement also established an accord for the tripartite supervision of the islands but, unfortunately for all involved, it appears to have been constructed in haste and the resulting document led to squabbles and by 1892 the island '… still lacked any form of peace, order and effective administration'.

Tamasese had died in 1891 and in 1893 another civil war broke out between Mata'afa and Malietoa, the upshot of which was the capture and deportation of Mata'afa. In 1894 fresh conflict broke out between Tamasese's son and Malietoa which was put down by German forces.

But in August 1898 Samoa's King Malietoa Laupepa died and his long-time rival Mata'afa returned from exile supported by the German forces. This act was strongly opposed by the British and Americans who backed Laupepa's son, Tanu, and in January 1899 a war, similar to the one ten yeas previously, erupted in Apia. In an astounding turn of events the American heavy cruiser U.S.S. Philadelphia shelled Apia on 14 March almost ten years to the day of the anniversary of the hurricane which ended the first conflict.

This shelling was done in an attempt to dissolve a provisional government set up by Mata'afa and Germany and re-establish the tripartite solution. Instead it inflamed the hostilities and Mata'afa's forces attacked houses in Apia, particularly the Tivoli Hotel where three American sailors were killed. Tanu's forces were outnumbered by Mata'afa's on Upolu and so British and American ships picked up hundred of supporters from the Samoan Islands of Savai'i and Tutuila and brought them back to Apia where they were armed and trained. On 30 March a British and American force under Commander Sturdee, along with about one hundred Samoans under Lieutenant Gaunt, made their way along the coast driving small numbers of Mata'afa's men before them. 

Malietoa supporters and marines on the streets of Apia, 1899, published by Kerry and Co.

On the first of April, and no doubt feeling full of confidence at the ease with which they were forcing Mata'afa's forces off the coast, they pursued him inland. This tactic was foolhardy in the extreme as they were no longer covered by the fire of the warships and were attacked by thousands of Mata'afa's men. While only seven were killed, the historian Paul Kennedy considered these were, 'remarkably light considering the circumstances'. The upshot of all this activity was the establishment of Samoan, American and British forces along the coast while Mata'afa's Samoan forces and the Germans were firmly entrenched in the interior.

The inevitable deadlock was broken by a ceasefire announced on 25 April and in May 1899 a specially set up commission of British, American, and German representatives arrived. Soon after a treaty was agreed to by all parties. This document recognised the independence of the Samoan Government and divided European interests so that Germany received the western Samoan islands with Savaii and Upolu, the United States received the eastern islands with its capital at Pago Pago on Tutuila and Britain withdrew from the area for recognition of rights on Tonga and the Solomon Islands.

These images are two of the 26 images relating to the 1899 conflict held by the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney.

Geoff Barker

References

Paul M. Kennedy, The Samoan Tangle; a Study in Anglo-German-American Relations, University of Queensland Press, Queensland, 1974

Robert Louis Stevenson, A Footnote to History; Eight years of Trouble in Samoa, 1892, transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, 2005, Project Gutenberg eBook, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/536/536.txt

Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity - how it was finally proved on the 1922 solar eclipse expedition

P3549-193 Photographic print, Wollal eclipse expedition unloading boat, Wollal, Australia, 1922 

In late August 1922 a group of astronomers, naval men, and Aboriginal stockmen began the arduous task of unloading their complicated scientific equipment and stores from boats onto a deserted beach on the coast of Western Australia. The shallow nature of the approach meant the boats were anchored three or four miles from the high-water line and the stores, after being brought to shore, were then transported by donkey wagons to the observation site at Wollal. This was no ordinary expedition and its members knew the eyes of the world were on them waiting to see if they would be the ones to finally prove Einstein’s controversial ‘Theory of General Relativity‘.

To do this they would have to photograph the light from stars bending around the sun and then measure their placement extremely accurately. At stake was the whole concept of universe as envisaged by Sir Isaac Newton over 250 years before. Everyone involved in the project was well aware of how difficult this task was and that they were only one of eight other astronomical expeditions who were also setting up their equipment at sites across Australia. The largest group of observers, based near the Wollal post and telegraph station consisted of three international parties, the Lick Observatory party, under the direction of W. W. Campbell, a group from the University of Toronto, under C. A. Chant and the Indian expedition supervised by J. Evershed. In addition Australia provided a fourth group from the Perth Observatory. They were directed Mr. Nossiter and included Mr. Nunn, Mr. Matthews, Mr. Dwyer and Mr. Yates. On top of this were four others set up on the east coast under the direction of the Sydney Observatory and W. E.Cooke.

All this preparation was for the solar eclipse predicted on 22 September 1922 and the hope they would be the ones to resolve the scientific problem Einstein had set in train 17 years previously. In 1905 Einstein (then an unknown patent clerk) had published four groundbreaking scientific papers in what is commonly referred to as his ‘miracle year’. While these included his famous equation E=Mc2 which determined how energy became matter and matter in turn became energy, it also included a mind-blowing paper describing how the fabric of space and time are woven together; this paper he titled ‘The Special Theory of Relativity’.

This radical new concept had come to him in Berne while he was riding in a bus and looking back at the local town clock. As he describes it a ‘storm broke in my mind’ as he imagined what would happen if the bus was travelling at the speed of light. If this was the case then the light from the clock couldn't catch up with the bus and thus time would appear to stop. For Einstein this implied that space and time were one and the same and were in fact a flexible fabric he labelled space/time.

There was no instant acclaim for his theories but he did have an important supporter, Max Planck, one of the foremost physicists of the day. As a result of discussions with other scientists Einstein started to write a new article on special relativity in 1907 but realised his original concept was limited as it only dealt with objects moving in one direction and at one speed. Clearly this was not the way things work in the real world and so he rewrote his paper taking into account gravity calling this one the Theory of General Relativity.

The problem Einstein was addressing was this, if an apple falls we traditionally say a mysterious force, which Newton called gravity, is pulling it down. But Einstein knew from his working with physics that objects usually moved if they were pushed and instead he posited the idea that there was no such thing as gravitational pull. Instead he suggested that the earth has curved space around it and it is this that is keeping our feet firmly planted on the ground by pushing on the atmosphere and all the objects on the earth. In the case of the earth going around the sun most people would say it was the gravitational force of the sun pulling the earth around it. Instead Einstein suggested it was the gravitation of the sun distorting the space around the earth and that this was the force pushing the earth around the sun.

But while Einstein could propose this new theory of the universe and of gravity using maths and physics it was another thing to prove it by experiment. Thus his ‘General Theory of Relativity’, unlike his photon, energy and mass equations, remained an interesting but unproven theory in the eyes of the scientific community. He needed to find a way to measure the effects of gravity on the straight beams thrown from a light source. If he could show this he could also prove his theory that space/time was flexible. But where could he possibly find something with enough gravity to bend light.

It was then that he came up with a great idea, what about using light from distant stars and the sun which has around 300,000 times more mass than the earth. Einstein hypothesised that if his theory was correct light from a star would bend as it passed through the sun’s gravitational field. The problem was that the sun was too bright to see this happen – UNLESS THERE WERE A SOLAR ECLIPSE!

When the sun’s rays are blocked out by the moon during a solar eclipse we can see the stars around it. And if his theory was correct these should appear to be slightly out of place from their actual positions as measured in the night sky because the light they emitted was bent as it went past the sun.

Of course to do this Einstein needed someone to photograph the event. So in 1912 he published his thoughts on this experiment and appealed to astrophysicists to take up his challenge. Instead of a chorus of willing voices his challenge was initially met with silence. Except for an assistant astronomer at the Berlin Observatory Erwin Finlay-Freundlich who although still in his early 20s saw Einstein’s call as an opportunity to make his name. A total solar eclipse is only visible over a small area of the earth and the next one was on the 21 of August 1914, and would be best seen from the Crimea in Russia.

After being refused by his boss Freundlich wrote to William Wallace Campbell, a pioneer in solar eclipse photography, at the Lick Observatory in USA. He asked him to come to Russia and prove or disprove Einstein’s theory. As a result Freundlich and Campbell both made their way to Russia in 1914 with Freundlich setting up his instruments in the Crimea while Campbell sets his up near to Kiev. Unfortunately for everyone major political events unfolding in the background and bad weather destroyed their chances for capturing the event.

On June 28 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated and Germany declared war on Russia. As a result Russian officers seize Freundlich’s equipment, (in fact he and his assistants are held as POWs for a number of months afterwards). Campbell as an American is allowed to continue his project but unfortunately clouds obscure the eclipse and he not able to good photographs of the event.

Einstein is initially devastated by the failure but it turns out that these particular clouds had a silver lining. In the wake of the eclipse fiasco and while locked down in Germany by the war Einstein begins going over his initial calculations and finds he has made some fundamental errors. He now recognises that if the 1914 eclipse expedition had been a success they would have used these calculations, and they would have been wrong and discredited his theory. So Einstein sets about redoing his calculations and finally on 25 November 1915 he presents his General Theory of Relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences. In 1916 he finally submits his paper, with correct calculations, and a completely different view of the universe. But while many accept to work the scientific community remains divided, particularly given the theory had yet to be proven.

Help came in the form of an Englishman, Arthur Stanley Eddington. He was not only an astronomer at Cambridge University, he was also a conscientious objector and saw in Einstein a fellow scientist opposed to the war. In February 1916 he received a package from a friend in Holland which contained a copy of Einstein’s theory translated into English. Eddington was astounded, and decided to see if they could prove, or disprove, Einstein’s theory by making observations at the next solar eclipse, on 8 June, 1918.

The limited viewing window for this eclipse made the United States a prime site for setting up his equipment but unfortunately the war made it difficult for Eddington to travel there. Instead he also decided to contact Campbell at the Lick Observatory and ask if he would be able to try one more time to photograph the eclipse. Campbell agrees but his equipment had been confiscated by the Russians in 1914 and this forced him to improvise from existing equipment lying around at the Lick Observatory. Thus it turned out that although Campbell had the solar eclipse observations all to himself he was forced to take his photographs using sub-standard equipment, and this was to have some serious implications for this story.

On Saturday June the 8 the clouds parted in time to allow Campbell to take some photographic plates which he gave to Heber Curtis to make the measurements from. So after doing his measurements Curtis gives Campbell the news that he believes the stars are actually in the same position and thus Einstein is wrong. However this is a momentous decision and Campbell, realising his reputation could be at stake holds off announcing the results as he is worried his sub-standard equipment may have affected the results. Instead he asks Curtis to re-do his measurements.

On the 11 November 1918 World War One ended. This took away the restrictions on travel which had been holding back astronomers and as a result tEddington was free to travel to observe the next solar eclipse. The event happened on May 29 1919 and this time Eddington carved his way through the jungle of island of Principe (off the west coast of Africa) to set up his equipment. He spent a month there building the telescope but as luck would have it on the day clouds affected the view forcing Eddington to take his photographs in quick succession hoping all the time they caught the moment of full eclipse when the stars would be most visible.

Eddington was so concerned about the results that he started measuring the plates then and there while still in the middle of the jungle. Many proved worthless but a few showed enough stars visible for him to make some preliminary results. And unlike Campbell’s his confirmed Einstein’s theory.

In a strange twist of fate Eddington’s cable confirming Einstein’s theory arrives in London at the same time as Campbell physically arrives to present his results, disproving the theory. As a result Campbell gets nervous again about the quality of the equipment and Curtis’s measurements and decides to again delay the presentation of his negative results to London’s Royal Astronomical Society. Instead it is Eddington who on 6 November 1919 presents his positive results and word of this momentous decision spreads quickly spreads around the world. Very quickly Einstein becomes the face of genius and a world renown scientist – BUT still there many sceptics in the scientific community who questioned Eddington’s results and a backlash began, helped in part by anti-German sentiment in the wake of War.

It quickly becomes clear that another expedition needed to be organised to settle the issue once and for all. The next scheduled solar eclipse was on the 21 September 1922, and would be visible over the continent of Australia. By now Einstein was 42 years old, a household name, and yet his theory of relativity published eight years previously had yet be confirmed to the satisfaction of the scientific community. It seemed that Australia would be the place where the controversy would be settled once and for all and so it is no surprise to find the event generated huge media and scientific interest.

P3549-194 Photographic print, Wollal eclipse expedition unloading equipment, Wollal, Western Australia, 30 August – 1 September, 1922

So we come full circle back to the astronomers loading their donkeys on a remote beach in Western Australia with the world’s gaze upon them as they prepared their equipment to photograph the solar eclipse.

P3549-201 Photographic print, Lick Observatory eclipse expedition, the polar axis with spectrographs and Floyd telescope, photographer unknown, Wollal, Western Australia, 1922

This time the weather and the equipment would provide optimal conditions for Campbell and his group at Wollal. In this photograph we can see the polar axis set up to hold the spectrographs, the Floyd telescope and the two short focus camera. The woman on the left is probably the wife of W. W. Campbell as during the eclipse she was responsible for the exposures of the solar corona by means of the Floyd camera.

P3549-203 Photographic print, Lick Observatory eclipse expedition, 1.52 metre (5 foot) Einstein camera, Wollal, Western Australia, 1922 

Also in Campbell’s arsenal was a specially made 1.52 metre (5 foot) solar telescope camera named fittingly the ‘Einstein camera’. campbell himself directed this camera but looking after the changing of the glass plates was left to two Australian naval men, Messers. Rhoades and Kenny, under Commander Quick. It is quite possible that these are the two men seen here.

P3549-36 Photographic positive, solar eclipse, photograph by Lick Observatory, Australia, 21 September 1922.

Finally amongst the Lick Observatory’s 35 tons of stores and equipment was a forty foot coronal camera which required supporting towers 36 feet high. This photograph of the eclipse during total phase was taken by Dr. Adams using this astrograph and it was the measurements from these plates that finally led to H. Spencer Jones of Greenwich Observatory announcing in May 1923, … as a result of the observations secured last September, together with the two previous confirmations from the 1919 eclipse, leave little room for doubting that the deflection deduced from Einstein’s theory is the correct one.

After years of controversy, a World War, and several failed eclipse expeditions, Einstein’s Theory of General relativity was finally proved, and science’s understanding of how the world around us worked was completely overturned.

Post by Geoff Barker, 2012

References
Campbell, W. W., ‘The Total Eclipse of the Sun, September 21, 1922′, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data Sy
stem, May 2008
Evershed, J., ‘Report of the Indian Eclipse Expedition to Wollal, West Australia’, Kodaikanal Observatory, Bulletin, number LXI
Spencer Jones, H., ‘The Total Solar Eclipse of 1922 September 21′, The Observatory, May 1923
Thomas Levenson, Einstein in Berlin
Walter Isaacson, Einstein; his life and his Universe 
Amir D Aczel, God’s Equation 
Michio Kaku, Physics of the Impossible

Weekly Update on Museums, Tech, Social-Media Bell Labs etc - open source zombie gnomes

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Early Photographs of Sydney by William Hetzer

George St, Sydney, photo by William Hetzer, 1858-1863, original held by Powerhouse Museum 




The first two photographic processes were the daguerreotype (which created a positive image on a silver plate) and the calotype (which created a paper negative). Both became commercially available in 1839 but ufortunately the small population, patent restrictions and uncertainty about their permanence limited photography's use in Australia before the 1850s. 

The daguerreotype was certainly the more successful of the two processes, and was the one adopted by Australia's first commercial photographer, George Baron Goodman, who arrived in 1842. The calotype on the other hand found more general use among gentlemen amateurs in England when its inventor William Henry Fox-Talbot relaxed his patents to allow non-commercial use of the process. As a result the process became more viable and one of the first commercial photographers to use the process in Australia was William Hetzer. 

Hetzer, a German immigrant, arrived in Sydney, with his wife, in 1850, where they immediately set up a photographic studio at 15 Hunter Street. Hetzer did not just specialise in calotypes and, as new collodion based positive/negative processes, like the ambrotype and albumen prints, appeared in the early 1850s he embraced these as well. His wife Thekla apparently assisted William in his studio and for this reason can possibly lay claim to being the first woman photographer in Australia, although no work credited to her survives. In addition to building up his photographic studio Hetzer taught amateur photographers new photographic processes and printed their negatives for them. 

In 1858 Hetzer embarked on what is now his best known enterprise, the publication of a set of 36 albumen prints taken with a stereo-view camera. The stereoscopic camera had become commercially available in 1855 and had revolutionized the speed with which outdoor photographs could be taken. Their uniform size also meant people could collect sets of views and this led to the setting up of publishing houses to reproduce views for sale at home and abroad. 

Hetzer's views of Sydney - "... its harbour, principal buildings, streets and neighbouring scenery, &c." were among the earliest outdoor photographs taken in Sydney and were certainly more extensive than others produced before 1858. The first set appears to have done well and Hetzer produced more sets of stereo-views of Sydney and its harbour, right up until 1863. 

The twenty five photographs in the Powerhouse Museum collections are of well known building such as St James Church, St Patrick's Church, Government House, The Exchange, George St, but also include a wide range of scenic views from the North Shore to Penrith in the Western suburbs. It is important to note however, that the wide range in the quality of the images makes it is almost certain that Hetzer, like many other publishers of views, used amateur negatives was well as his own. 

On 22 December 1859, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article on the first photographic exhibition held by the Philosophical Society of New South Wales. This society, of which Hetzer was a member, was modeled on the Royal Society of London and its show at the Australian Subscription Library displayed 1013 photographs. Of these 703 were stereo photographs, and of 268 were Australian stereo views contributed by society members Joseph Docker, Robert Hunt, Arthur Onslow, Jenner Plomley, Professor John Smith, William Stanley Jevons, Mathew Fortescue Moresby, E. W. Ward, Edward Dalton and William Hetzer. Of these Dalton and Hetzer were the only professional photographers; the others were all amateurs. 

By this time Hetzer was a well respected member of Sydney's artistic and scientific community. In addition to exhibiting his works with the Royal Society of New South Wales he was also awarded an honourable mention for his studies of trees at the 1861 Sydney Exhibition. This was held in preparation for the 1862 London International Exhibition, to which Hetzer also sent a huge 116 x 60.9 composite portrait of the 23 officers of the Sydney Provincial Grand Lodge of Freemasons.

It is unsure what happened to cause Hetzer to decide to leave Australia but in March 1867 the Sydney Morning Herald announced the auction of Hetzer's studio at 287 George Street. This included his photographic equipment and about 3500 registered negatives, all of which were purchased by the photographer Joseph Degotardi. Hetzer and Thekla, returned to England in the same year ending their 17 year adventure in the colonies, and luckily for us, leaving behind a fascinating collection of early Sydney views.

by Geoff Barker

References
Davies, Alan and Stanbury, Peter, The Mechanical Eye in Australia; photography 1841 - 1900, Oxford University Press, New Zealand, 1986
Leibovic, Joseph, Masterpieces of Australian Photography, auction catalogue, Joesph Leibovic Gallery, Paddington, Australia, 1989 
Newton, Gael, Shades of Light; photography and Australia 1839-1988, Australian National Gallery, 1888