Madeira-Mamoré Expeditions Collection, 1875-1914

Collector
Princeton University. Library. Special Collections [Browse]
Format
Manuscript
Language
English
Description
  • 1 box
  • 0.2 linear feet

Details

Subject(s)
Creator
Getty AAT genre
Compiled/​Created
1875-1914
Restrictions note
The collection is open for research.
Summary note
  • Consists of postcards, photographs, wood engravings, memorabilia, and printed material collected by Robert Hopewell Hepburn relating to expeditions sent down to tropical South America in an attempt by the Brazilian government to construct a railroad along the Madeira River. Robert Hopewell Hepburn, a young engineer with the Pennsylvania Railroad System and a Princeton graduate of the Class of 1871, made the trip in 1878. He son undertook the same effort twenty-nine years later, sending back postcards to his father from Brazil.
  • The collection consists of postcards, photographs, wood engravings, memorabilia, printed material, and newspaper and magazine clippings collected by Hepburn regarding the expeditions commissioned by the Brazilian government to build a railroad along the banks of the Madeira River. The postcards consist chiefly of cards sent to Robert or Mrs. Hepburn from their son, George, while he was on expedition to build the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. They were sent from Amazonas State in Brazil, from Bolivia, or from La Paz in Peru. One photo-postcard was sent to Edgar A. Smith in Bristol, P.A., from Porto Velho, Rio Madeira, Brazil, and dated Nov. 30, 1910, with the inscription "A Merry X-mas from dad." There are twenty-eight photographs, which include three albumen prints of the Madeira river, a tree, and the expedition headquarters at Porto Velho, all inscribed and dated Jan. 4, 1908, and nineteen gelatin silver prints of the landscape, the engineers, and their quarters, various phases of construction of the railroad, native Indians, exotic animals, and the rivers and rapids, most of which were taken by Dana B. Merrill, and most are numbered on the negative. A photograph of a monkey (Merrill no. 527) bears the inscription "To Robert H. Hepburn from E. A. Smith, with your son on the expedition of 1908," and there is one posed formal portrait by F. A. Fidanza of Pará, Brazil, inscribed in Hepburn's hand "Frederick-Lawford-Hunt." In addition, there are three photographs of the ships that were used to carry equipment in Pará, Brazil, two of which, the JUNO and the BRAZIL, are hand-painted in sepia colors, one tintype inscribed in Robert H. Hepburn's hand "1879, self / Geo. M. Kearberg (?), right hand man on Madeira exp.,"and one photo-lithograph of one of Merrill's photographs, which he originally numbered 795 and labeled "Caripuna Indians on the Rio Murum Parana." Most of the wood engravings are taken from Franz Keller's book. They include illustrations of scenery, of native Indians, rubber collectors, and wild life in the Madeira region. Also included is a lithograph map of the Madeira-Mamoré Railway and its connections. The memorabilia includes a list of the members of the Madeira and Mamoré Association, dated January 1908, menus for different annual dinners of the Association, a note in the hand of R. H. Hepburn, and a small souvenir label with the logo and dates of the expedition, "1878-1907-1912," bearing on the verso the inscription "To Robert H. Hepburn of 1878 Expedition, from Edgar A. Smith of 1907-1912 Expedition." The clippings include pictures of native Indians, exotic animals, such as anteaters, tapirs, and piranhas, and streets and buildings in Brazil and Bolivia.
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