An album containing mounted prints, most measuring approximately 200 x 140 mm, depicting the landscape and people of New Zealand, Fiji and Samoa. All the prints except for ten are signed and captioned by Burton Brothers. The ten unsigned photographs, mainly of Maori warriors, are the work of American Photo Company, Auckland (Y3089/53-54) and Pulman Studio, Auckland (Y3089D/58-65). The album breaks down into geographical locations thus:

65 prints of New Zealand
10 prints of Fiji
7 prints of Samoa
1 print of New Hebrides (Espiritu Santo)
1 print of New Caledonia

Almost all the work illustrated here was taken in the course of two expeditions by Alfred Henry Burton (1834-1914), the first in 1884 to the Coral Islands of Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, etc., and the second through the King Country of New Zealand in the following year. It was for the ethnographical quality of the pictures taken during this second expedition that Burton was made a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1885.

Burton's signature on his photographs was almost always 'Burton Bros., Dunedin', and this can sometimes be misleading in the attribution of photographs. His brother, Walter Burton, died at an early age in 1880, so would have had no part in the photographs in this album. Burton also followed the not uncommon commercial practice of sending assistants on expeditions to take photographs which later were sold under the firm's name. This would not appear to be the case in this instance, Burton's two trips being amply documented (although it is possible that some of the photographs taken at Rotomahana were photographed at a different date).