| Admin History | William Joseph Harding King (1869-1933), explorer, FRGS, was educated at Jesus College Cambridge, and apparently lived at Wollescote Hall, near Stourbridge, Worcestershire.
He travelled extensively in the north African deserts; in 1900 and 1908 he was in the Western Sahara and in 1909-1912 he explored the central portions of the Libyan Desert. He took part in 1913 with Oric Bates in the archaeological expedition to Marmarica. He was the author of two books - 'A Search for the Masked Tawareks' (1903) and 'Across the Libyan Desert' (1923) - and a number of articles. |
| Arrangement | The collection was originally housed in 4 negative boxes, in which the photographs were collated in a range of envelopes, annotated by Harding King. Contents of the original envelopes have been retained during cataloguing. The following list details the arrangement of the collection prior to cataloguing work:
Box 1, Kodak negative album box (light brown):
Envelope 1 'Biskra'
Envelope 2, 'Tawareks'
Envelope 3, 'Gazelle scattering, no. 4, camel back view, camel profile'
Envelope 4, 'Compound rippling... dune'
Envelope 5, 'Tongourt no. 1, 1. Two figures washing, 2. Arcades'
Envelope 6, 'Kharga reserve'
Envelope 7, 'Biskra'
Envelope 8, 'Constantine Sahara'
Envelope 9, 'Biskra & Sahara'
Envelope 10, 'Photographs Harding-King'
Envelope 11, 'Biskara games'
[Envelope 12], loose photographs
Box 2, 'Developers for plates', Imperial Dry Plate Co Ltd, Cricklewood (dark brown box):
Envelope 1, blank envelope
Envelope 2, 'Tangourt'
[Envelope 3], loose photographs
[Envelope 4], one glass plate negative
Envelope 5, 'Lancaster and Son, Birmingham' envelope
Box 3, 'Antique Silurian, Midland Educational Co Ltd, Corporation Street, Birmingham' (blue box):
[Envelope 1], loose photographs
Envelope 2, 'Dakhla photos'
Envelope 3, 'The masked tawareks: surplus illustrations and one film', 'Algerian Sahara'
Envelope 4, 'The masked tawareks: illustrations to be used', 'Algerian Sahara'
Envelope 5, 'Cairo Photographic Stores no. 41698', 'Sundry reserve'
[Envelope 6], loose photographs
4 empty envelopes
Box 4, 'Waldorf Club, size - court, shade - ivory' (grey/green/red box):
Envelope 1, 'Algerian Sahara'
Envelope 2, 'Algerian Sahara', '...? 22 photos'
Envelope 3, 'Farafra, Kanoiou ? and Bath...ger Reserve'
Envelope 4, 'Portraits Baswa'
[Envelope 5], loose photographs
Envelope 6, 'Desert reserve'
Envelope 7, 'Bull fight'
Envelope 8, 'Libyan desert: duplicates'
Envelope 9, 'Locust plague Constantine'
Envelope 10, 'Libyan desert - not wanted?'
Envelope 11, 'orange envelope 'John Barker and Co, Kensington, order no. 2290' |