Guide to the John W. S. and Arthur D. Foster world travel films collection

Scope and Contents

Incomplete amateur edited film documenting an around-the world trip. The Fosters travel through southern Sudan and the Belgian Congo (Republic of Congo), Africa; Iraq; Thailand; Cambodia; and Calcutta, India. In Africa film records steamship voyage up unidentified tributary of the White Nile through marshy vegetation to British border post of Rejaf and an overland hunting trip from village of Irumu through the Ituri forest. Included are scenes of daily life on barges being pushed upriver by the steamer (men playing cards, head shaving and man playing stringed instrument); aspects of the steamer (wheelhouse, first class bunkhouse on upper deck, and white hunter shooting crocodile from deck); boys swimming in river; Irumu post house; loading expedition equipment on truck; truck crossing river on ferry made from dugout canoes; hunters being carried in primitive "sedan chairs" and workers clearing forest for road through the Ituri forest. Footage of Iraq is consists mostly of film aerial views shot out the window during airplane trip from Basra to Baghdad. Thailand footage includes the birthday celebration of King Rama III with scenes in the royal compound (including guards, nobelmen, children of noble families, King's children, and King and Queen), kite fighting tournament attended by the Royal family and extracting snake venom to make anti-toxins. Cambodian footage includes Angkor Wat.

Legacy keywords: Aerial photography ; Kites ; Royal houses ; Ruins ; Boats ; Crocodiles Africa ; Aerial views ; Tourism ; Palace Thailand ; Hunting Belgian Congo ; Travel ; Language and culture

Please note that the contents of the collection and the language and terminology used reflect the context and culture of the time of its creation. As an historical document, its contents may be at odds with contemporary views and terminology and considered offensive today. The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the Smithsonian Institution or Anthropology Archives, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.