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Landscape of an Escarpment Area along the Niger River

Image Architecture
A photograph showing a landscape with thatched-roof structures and a forested ridge along the Niger River.
Landscape of an escarpment area along the Niger River, photographed by William Henry Crosse, 1886-1895.

A monochromatic photograph from the late 19th century depicting a landscape view of an escarpment area along the Niger River. The foreground consists of dense, low-lying shrubbery and grasses on sloping terrain. In the midground, a cluster of vernacular structures with steeply pitched conical thatched roofs is situated, featuring a single light-toned flag positioned near the primary buildings. The background is dominated by a prominent, elongated forested ridge spanning the horizon under a hazy sky. The image was captured by William Henry Crosse, Principal Medical Officer of the Royal Niger Company, between 1886 and 1895.

Community Notes

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 18, 2026

The original image was captured as a glass negative halfplate. It was discovered in a wooden box (numbered C329/) and was initially attributed to G.I. Jones, a Colonial Service employee from 1926 to 1946, due to the handwriting on the box. However, the attribution was later corrected to William Henry Crosse after the negative was matched with a series of other negatives and lantern slides. This provenance is documented in the Landscape of an Escarpment Area along the Niger River catalogue record from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge.

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 18, 2026

The photograph may have been donated to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology by Reverend Charles Henry Robinson. Robinson utilized several of Crosse's images in his 1900 publication, Nigeria: Our Latest Protectorate, for which he credited both Dr. Crosse and Sir George Goldie, the founder of the Royal Niger Company, for the use of the photographs. This connection is noted in the Landscape of an Escarpment Area along the Niger River archives.

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