An album of prints whose subjects include scenes on the Simba River, in the Aderdare Mountains, Laikipia, and elsewhere; views in Nairobi, including a race meeting, Government House, and the Jackson's house (48); a settler's house in Naivasha (71); and Masai men and women. Four photographs taken from the same point show the gradual break-up of a sailing ship wrecked off Mombasa (84-87); and there are photographs of individuals such as A.H. Neumann (25), 'Lord John' Wilson of Smith Mackenzie and Co. (45), Sir Ralph and Lady Combe (7-8, 56), and the Jacksons themselves (27, 34, 45, 57, 75).

Frederick John Jackson (1860-1929) first went to East Africa on a hunting expedition in 1884. He later joined the service of the imperial British East Africa Company and in 1894 was appointed by the Foreign Office as a First Class Assistant in Uganda. In 1902, following boundary changes, his post was transferred to the East Africa Protectorate (Later Kenya) from which he returned to Uganda as Governor in 1911. During his leave in 1904 he married Aline Cooper and this photograph album was collected by her during their years in Kenya. After his death Lady Jackson completed his unfinished autobiography ‘Early days in East Africa’ and eventually in 1938 saw the publication of his ‘Birds of Kenya and Uganda.’ She continued to live at St. Leonards on Sea until her death at the age of 88 on 27 May 1966. One of her regular visitors was H.B. Thomas, who had served in Uganda during Sir Frederick’s Governorship, and she gave him a number of items relating to Sir Frederick’s service in Africa, including this album, which he presented to the RCS. Before doing so he added a number of notes to the captions under the pictures for fuller identification.