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Forest Scene with Group of Figures

Image Daily Life
A photograph depicting a large buttress-rooted tree with a group of people gathered at its base in a forest.
A forest scene featuring a large buttress-rooted tree and a group of figures. Photographed by William Henry Crosse, circa 1890, 1910.

A monochrome photograph depicting a tropical forest environment. The right side of the frame is dominated by a massive, mature tree with prominent, flared buttress roots and an expansive canopy. A group of human figures is clustered at the base of this tree, seated or crouching. In the center-left foreground, a single individual wearing light-toned clothing stands near a low horizontal embankment. A slender vertical trunk of another tree species extends from the bottom left, providing scale to the primary botanical subject. The image was captured by William Henry Crosse during his tenure as Principal Medical Officer for the Royal Niger Company.

Community Notes

Onyeka Nwokike

Oct 24, 2026

The photograph is a halfplate glass negative (ID N.17730.WCR) part of the Crosse Collection at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Cambridge. It was recovered in 2014 wrapped in newspaper, having been originally marked as batch 120 (now numbered C473/1/).

Onyeka Nwokike

Oct 24, 2026

While Dr. William Henry Crosse traveled throughout Northern Nigeria, his official residence and the seat of the Royal Niger Company's civil administration was Asaba on the Niger River. Consequently, the forest scene likely depicts the Cross-Niger transition forests near Asaba, a location further supported by Crosse's professional history as described in The Geographical Journal.

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