Scope and Contents

55 x 80 mm.

Scope and Contents

55 x 80 mm.

Scope and Contents

55 x 80 mm.

Scope and Contents

55 x 80 mm.

Scope and Contents

55 x 80 mm.

Scope and Contents

204 x 152 mm. A view showing searchers among the shattered masonry and buildings of a street in St Pierre, with the hills behind the city rising in the background.

Scope and Contents This porcelain statue bears the tag, ‘Found in ruins of St. Pierre, miraculously preserved 1902’. It was recovered from the ruins of St. Pierre, Martinique, in June 1902, by Sir Hesketh Bell, Administrator of Dominica, who visited immediately after the eruption of Mt. Pelée, ‘To our intense surprise, we found that this image was almost entirely undamaged, the hands and feet only having been broken off. This was a really an amazing thing, as it lay almost completely covered by big stones and...

Scope and Contents

203 x 153 mm. A view showing the desolate graveyard covered in ash, with burnt trees on the hillside behind.

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191 x 128 mm. A haunting picture of the wreckage of the city of St Pierre, showing the still smoking ruins against a background of scorched hills. The ruins of the cathedral rise above the rest of the charred buildings.

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80 x 55 mm. The ruins of the Cathedral are seen above the ruined buildings on the waterfront.

Scope and Contents

80 x 55 mm.

Scope and Contents A collection of loose gravure prints measuring approximately 190 x 125 mm, captioned in ink on the backs of the prints. The captions have been used as titles and recorded as found.The great tragedy which overtook the island of Martinique and razed St Pierre in May 1902 is made more poignant by what we know of the city and its people before Mont Pelée erupted. Lafcadio Hearn spent some time on the island shortly before the disaster and gives a description which tallies with accounts...

Scope and Contents

203 x 152 mm. A view showing the ruined frontage of the café with a twisted iron balcony on the first floor and rubble on the street in the foreground.

Scope and Contents 192 x 127 mm. A view showing the burnt out hull of the American steamer ‘Roraima’ in St Pierre Harbour, with clouds of smoke billowing from the summit of Mount Pelée in the distance. Hesketh Bell, who had intended to make a brief visit to Martinique to inspect the damage, had a lucky escape here, having originally intended to travel down to St Pierre in the ‘Roraima’. He also describes the smoke from Mount Pelée (as seen from Dominica on a clear day) as ‘a huge mass of billowing clouds, just...

Scope and Contents

191 x 127 mm. A view from offshore showing the wrecked waterside village, with hills in the background. Mount Pelée can be seen in the far distance.

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191 x 127 mm. A general view looking along the waterfront, with the beach in the foreground and burnt-out buildings behind.

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203 x 152 mm. A view showing smoking ruins on the waterfront with the hills behind the city in the background.

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191 x 127 mm. A view showing the burnt-out shells of buildings on the waterfront. For a view of the waterfront before the eruption of Mount Pelée see Y307A/63-66.

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191 x 127 mm. A view looking across the park showing charred and leafless trees and the ruins of the town beyond. Sand-like ash covers what were the lawns.

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204 x 153 mm. A view looking seaward from the open space behind the town and showing the desolation in the town itself. With a figure walking through volcanic ash in the foreground.

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204 x 152 mm. A view showing raised buildings and charred trees with the sea in the background.

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202 x 151 mm. A view showing piles of trunks and branches in the park, with a man standing at the right of the picture and ruined buildings in the background.

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191 x 127 mm. A view showing the listing hull of the ‘Roraima’ from the stern.

Scope and Contents

203 x 154 mm. A view showing the stern section of the ‘Roraima’, with smoke issuing from the hold.