De Oliphants (2)

In 2019 plaatste ik al eens wat foto’s van de Oliphants maar toen had ik deze nog niet gezien:

Dit plaatje is afkomstig van de site Boken om Stockholm i ord och bild (Project Runeberg) en is online gezet in oktober 2022. Hoewel de foto’s sterk lijken op de eerder geplaatste portretten zijn ze zo te zien toch niet helemaal hetzelfde, dus dit is eigenlijk voor de volledigheid.

Leuk raadsel

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Another example is the photograph below, which had been placed among our images of cadets in training at Clapton Congress Hall. However, something seemed not quite right about this. We were able to recognise three of the individuals in the front row: Hugh Whatmore (fifth from the left), Frank Smith (sixth from the right) and Elwin Oliphant (fifth from the right). All three men became officers in the early 1880s but they were not in the same training session: Smith trained in 1881, Whatmore in 1882 and Oliphant in 1884.

Frank Smith was only a Salvation Army officer for ten years, resigning in 1891, so given the date Oliphant trained, the photograph could only have been taken between 1884 and 1891. Smith spent three years as National Commander of The Salvation Army in the USA from late 1884 until 1887 with Whatmore as his Aide-de-Camp, so one possibility was that the photograph was taken during that period. Yet, some investigation revealed that Oliphant was never in the United States during these years. He did, however, spend six months in 1884 as Aide‑de‑Camp to Frank Smith while Smith was in charge of the London Division, so this was another possible time period. But when we checked what Whatmore’s appointment had been during these six months, we found he was in Sweden as Aide‑de‑Camp to Major Hanna Ouchterlony. Whatmore was also abroad later in the decade when both Smith and Oliphant were in London: he served in Sweden between 1887 and 1889 and in the USA between 1889 and 1891. It seemed these three men had never been in the same country at the same time and yet here was photographic evidence that they had! 

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Je leest het hele verhaal op Identifying historical photographs (International Heritage Centre blog, Salvation Army UK)