Portraits by Clawson

A skilled photographer, H. Phelps Clawson often took note of the people he met on his journeys, including his trips to France, Egypt and the Sudan as part of the Harvard University - Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, and during his 1911 excursion to Russia and northern Europe.  Below are a few of those he met and captured with his ever-present camera.



"Bedouin girl and baby near Pyramids, 1927."



"The Oldest Guide," Les Baux, France.  April 13, 1933.



Workmen performing sword dance, Egypt.



Stokers onboard the Dunnottar Castle ocean liner, 1911.



"Roasting coffee.  Eyragues, Bouches-du​-Rhone.  July 19, 1933."



"Scene on the Empress of Britain, July 20, 1911."



Unknown woman, Paris.



"Russian Cossacks at St. Isaac's, St. Petersburg​," 1911



Archaeologist Noel F. Wheeler in Egypt.



"The traveling merchant.  'Bazar ambulant.'  He begins at Marseilles
and visits all the small out of the way towns.  For the household,
he had every imaginable thing.  Greoux les Bains (B.A.).  May 22, 1933."

 

The Oddities of H. Phelps Clawson

Phelps was a skilled photographer and took hundreds of photographs when he traveled.  With a sharp eye for the unique, here are a few of the more unusual sites he captured.

 

Passengers playing cricket on board the Dunottar Castle ocean liner, 1911.

 

GIANT termite nest near Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.  Brazil, December 1941.

Offerings for the Devil at the base of a tree. Bahia, Brazil 1941.  Below are Phelps' diary entries describing the custom.

 

From bottom of page:

"Tree on the road with offerings for the Exir (the Devil).  

Dish of Indian corn, a number of cigars, a piece of meat,...

"...jaw of an animal, several pots (now broken) bits of colored cloth.  All there lay at roots of tree.  Sometimes a goat or cock are left.  A man wants something.  He summons the Exir who may appear as a hen, a chicken, a pig, etc.  The fifth time he comes as the Devil.  The bargain is made then for a price (money, a goat, a cow (rarely) or the man's soul.  Then he gets his desire."

Want to learn more?  Read H. Phelps Clawson's Brazil diary here.