Marriage ceremony

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art. Visual details below describe the original material.

Original caption reads "Marriage ceremony, N.C.P. [Niger Coast Protectorate]" Published in "African Photographer J.A. Green" edited by Martha G. Anderson and Lisa Aronson, page 226, with the description "Two women wearing waist bells sit at a table, where two bottles support oddly shaped objects. Several small children sit in front of them, and five young women and two men stand behind." The image also appears in Gertie Webster's "Scenes in Nigeria." English Illustrated Magazine 28 (Oct 1902-March 1903), with the description, "After a due amount of vocal, instrumental, and gastronomic demonstrations they [the brides] repair to the spot selected for the necessary formalities, where is discovered a slave holding a skein of wool. The Brides then become seated, the bridegroom remaining standing, while the skein of wool is slowly unwound, at the conclusion of which ceremony they are legally man and wives, their vows being supposed to be bound up in the skein of wool.".

Collection

Nigeria photograph album

Catalog date

ca. 1890s

Cataloged creator or photographer

Green, J. A. (Jonathan Adagogo), 1873-1905

Format and extent

1 Photographic print (B/W)

Explore Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art ↗