Royal Commonwealth Society : Views in Fiji

Ragg, Hugh Hall, fl 1885, engineer

Royal Commonwealth Society

<p style='text-align: justify;'>An album containing mounted albumen prints, most measuring approximately 230 x 175 mm., and mostly captioned in pencil. Photographs are probably by the firm of Besse & Black. The album cover is stamped 'H.R.' beneath the title and it is suggested by Dr. E.M. Stephenson that this refers to Hugh Hall Ragg, engineer, boiler maker, general smith and government contractor in Fiji at this time.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'> Besse & Black: it seems likely that the photographs were selected individually from prints offered by the studio of Besse & Black, which was operating in Suva in 1885. Both Besse & Black and the Dufty Bros. (also in Suva then) offered selections of photographs for standard prices per number bought. Both firms photographed private houses also. A number of the pictures in the album were published in 'Besse & Black's illustrated history of Fiji' (John Sands, Sydney 1885). Besse left Fiji in 1887. It was probably after that that F. Dufty bought his negatives, thus leading to much confusion regarding the identity of the photographer.</p>