A rare complete photographic record of Angus Buchanan’s 3,500-mile Sahara crossing, preserving striking portraits, expedition scenes, zoological discoveries and images of Tuareg communities in the desert interior.
Bibliographic Details
Author / Explorer: BUCHANAN (Captain Angus, soldier, traveller, naturalist and author); Photographer: GLOVER (T. A., expedition photographer and cameraman).
Title: Set of photographic postcards documenting Captain Angus Buchanan’s Great Sahara expedition.
Place: [London?].
Publisher: No publisher stated.
Date: c.1924.
Format: Complete set of 12 original sepia-toned real photographic postcards.
Captions: Printed descriptive caption to the image side of each card; printed lettering to versos.
Postal use: Postally unused.
Size: Each card approximately 13.5 × 8.25 cm.
Condition
Near Fine. The cards are postally unused and remain clean and well preserved overall. The photographs show light, even fading consistent with age. Printed lettering is present on the versos, which are otherwise blank. Light surface dirt to the rears of a couple of cards and pencil lettering to one.
Please ask if you require a more detailed condition report, or examine the gallery images closely.
Description
A rare and apparently complete set of twelve original real photographic postcards documenting Captain Angus Buchanan’s celebrated journey across the Great Sahara, one of the most ambitious British expeditions through the region during the early twentieth century.
The series reproduces photographs taken by expedition cameraman T. A. Glover and provides an exceptional visual record of the journey’s leading personalities, desert landscapes, camel transport, zoological collecting and encounters with communities living deep within the Sahara. Together, the cards form a compact photographic narrative of exploration across one of the world’s most formidable environments.
Buchanan’s expedition began at Kano in Northern Nigeria early in 1922 and concluded at Tougourt in Algeria in April 1923. Covering approximately 3,500 miles across the Sahara, the party travelled for some sixteen months through remote and frequently inhospitable territory before reaching North Africa’s Mediterranean sphere.
This was not Buchanan’s first experience of the desert. He had already led an earlier Sahara expedition in 1919–1920, establishing his reputation as a determined traveller, skilled field naturalist and experienced organiser of long-distance journeys. Both expeditions yielded important zoological, geographical and scientific observations.
Several cards relate directly to the natural-history work undertaken during the crossing. One depicts Dama’s gazelle, described in the printed caption as a new subspecies discovered during the expedition, while another shows a silver fox from the mountains of the Sahara, likewise identified as a newly discovered subspecies. A further card records two fine male ostriches collected on the desert margins.
These images reveal the expedition’s dual character. It was at once an arduous feat of travel and a serious scientific collecting venture, with specimens transported back to camp under extremely difficult conditions. The cards therefore possess considerable appeal not only as travel photographs, but also as records of early twentieth-century zoological exploration.
Among the most compelling images are the portraits of Tuareg men and women. One card shows “A Tuareg girl of Aïr”, described in the contemporary caption as a child of the “mysterious veiled people of the Sahara”. Another depicts the Sultan of Ahaggar and his chiefs, presenting senior figures from one of the desert’s most renowned Tuareg communities.
The language of the captions reflects the attitudes and conventions of British expedition literature of the period, but the photographs themselves remain highly important visual documents. They preserve faces, dress, social status and material culture from communities encountered far beyond the usual routes of European travellers.
Other cards record the practical realities of desert travel. Camels are shown feeding on thorn trees in a dry river bed in Aïr, while a humorous card asks what a camel forced to go seven days without drinking might think of prohibition. Another portrays cones of salt from the great mines at the oasis of Bilma, situated deep within the Sahara.
Particularly memorable is the portrait of Feri n’Gashi, Buchanan’s faithful camel, which carried him throughout the entire 3,500-mile journey and was said to have been the only camel to complete the full crossing. A group portrait also shows Buchanan, Ali, Sakari and Feri n’Gashi, noting that they, together with Glover, were among the original expedition members to reach Algiers.
The complete captions are as follows:
“Captain Angus Buchanan M.C.”;
“A Tuareg girl of Aïr – (a child of the mysterious veiled people of the Sahara)”;
“Transporting big game specimens to camp. Dama’s Gazelle – a new subspecies discovered during the expedition across the Sahara”;
“A silver fox that lives in the mountains of the Sahara – A new subspecies discovered during the expedition”;
“Two fine male ostriches collected on the shores of the Sahara during Captain Buchanan’s expedition”;
“Cones of salt obtained from the great salt mines in the Oasis of Bilma in the very heart of the Sahara”;
“Ask a camel who has sometimes to go 7 days without a drink what he thinks of prohibition? He would surely answer – ‘It’s all wrong’”;
“Camels ‘in clover’ – feeding on thorn trees in a dry river bed in Aïr”;
“Feri n’Gashi the faithful camel which Buchanan rode throughout his journey across the Sahara – 3,500 miles ... It was the only camel to complete the whole journey”;
“Captain Buchanan – Ali – and Sakari and Feri n’Gashi who along with Mr T. A. Glover (camera man) were all of the original expedition to reach Algiers after 16 months spent in crossing the Sahara”;
“The Sultan of Ahaggar and his chiefs. Famous men of the veiled people in the heart of the Sahara”;
“The type of woman found in desert oases”.
A motion picture of the journey, Crossing the Great Sahara, was released in 1924, and this postcard series was most likely produced at approximately the same time to promote or commemorate the expedition. Buchanan later published his account, Sahara, in 1926, illustrated with eighty-four of Glover’s photographs.
The cards therefore occupy an important place between expedition photography, popular cinema and printed travel literature. They brought scenes from the remote Saharan interior before a wider public and helped shape contemporary perceptions of exploration, natural history and desert peoples.
Complete sets appear to be notably scarce. Institutional examples are held by the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African Art, underlining the series’ value as a historical and ethnographic photographic record.
The survival of all twelve cards together is particularly desirable. Individual postcards from exploration series are frequently dispersed, making a complete, uniformly preserved group increasingly difficult to obtain. This set offers a compelling visual archive of one of the great trans-Saharan journeys of the interwar period.
Notes
A highly evocative photographic document of exploration through the Sahara interior, combining portraits of Buchanan and his party with images of Tuareg subjects, camel travel, salt mining and important zoological discoveries.
Particularly desirable for collectors of African exploration, Sahara photography, Tuareg history, early cinema, real photo postcards, natural-history expeditions and British travel literature.