Archives, Manuscripts and Rare Books Division, The Library, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG, United Kingdom Council for World Missions University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies. Library docenquiry@soas.ac.uk http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/archives/services/
Description
Group of children learning music with their teacher, Mrs Frances Saville. One of 25 prints in a small album of "Snapshots". This photograph is a record of the educational work being carried out by the missionary and his wife in the Mailu district. In 1925 there were around two hundred adult Christians in this area and three hundred and forty children in mission schools. This class are learning music, with Mrs Saville seated at the piano, and the principles of western music on the board. The children are participating in education in non-indigenous subjects, and in an environment totally removed from traditional Papuan buildings. However, it can be seen that the students have not been fully integrated into the Christian life, as they still wear their traditional clothing, which was often replaced or adapted to conform to Western ideals of decency by the missionaries. Will Saville served the London Missionary Society in the Mailu district of Papua for thirty-five years following his appointment in 1900. In 1903 he married Frances Lawes, also the child of an LMS missionary, Rev Francis Edwin Lawes, and the niece of the pioneer missionary photographer, William George Lawes. Saville's knowledge of the Mailu area, its society and language was significant in increasing anthropological knowledge in this field. He published a grammar and dictionary, as well as translating the New Testament and producing a number of religious books in the Mailu language, as well as an anthropological study, "In Unknown New Guinea" in 1926. "In Unknown New Guinea" featured over sixty photographs and represent examples of Saville's photographs taken and presented as anthropological evidence. Missionaries regarded many of the customs they encountered as being totally incompatible with the pursuit of a Christian life. The study of these customs was therefore significant in the missionary's work, to understand and convert the indigenous populations amongst whom they lived. In addition to these studies of customs and traditions, Saville also took many photographs of children, including some more informal images included in this small album of "Snapshots".
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