A recent acquisition is a three-part albumen-print panorama (18.9 x 77.5 cm.) on the original thin card mount with printed series caption: ‘Abyssinia’ at the top and individual title: ‘Camp at Zoola’ and date ‘1868’ below.
150 years ago, the British Empire went to war against the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II (Theodore) under the pretext of the latter’s imprisoning of several Europeans including the British consul. The short-lived expedition ended with the death of Theodore by his own hand and the destruction of his capital at Magdala in the Ethiopian highlands. The expedition involved 13,000 men and a journey of 400 miles. In addition were 26,000 camp followers and over 40,000 animals including elephants, and the task of coordinating this massive effort went to the Bombay Army under the command of General Sir Robert Napier. It involved an immense amount of supplies and equipment and some sense of the scale can be gleaned from this photograph which was taken by a photographic unit of the Royal Engineers which accompanied the force.
Zoola [Zula] close to the Red Sea coast, was selected for the construction of a base camp to enable the troops and supplies to be landed. Nearby at Annesley Bay, a 700 yards-long pier was constructed in October 1867 (visible in the water-color by William Simpson, the artist for the Illustrated London News who covered the campaign); a second one was added and a railway line laid requiring the erection of 8 iron girder bridges. A road stretching 63 miles was also built by the Royal Engineers. ‘The demand for water was enormous, the Zoola camp using 200 tons a day, which was created using condensation from steamship boilers in the harbour’ (Wikipedia). According to James R. Ryan’s book Photography and the Visualization of the British Empire (1997), the photograph ‘shows the vast technical machinery, from the railway to the stacks of camp equipment, on which the expedition depended’. This includes piles of chairs, wooden crates, barrels, lines of horses, tents, and various sundry bundles tied with rope. British soldiers are seen commanding civilian workers including Indians. On the left horizon, a large timber-framed building is under constriction.