Bessie Corfield photographs of the Wesleyan Mission on Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands

PXA 7321

fonds

approximately 1904-1910

Graphic Materials, Photographs, Textual Records

9657963

91 photographic prints (1 box) - silver bromide, some on board, manuscript - 15 x 10.5 cm or smaller

Sarah Elizabeth (Bessie) Corfield (1880-1966) came from Nowra in New South Wales, and worked as a missionary school teacher on Kiriwina from late 1904 to 1913. Kiriwina is the largest of the Trobriand Islands which formed part of British New Guinea until 1906, when they came under Australian administration. They are now part of the nation of Papua New Guinea. The first European to settle there was Methodist minister, Samuel Fellows in 1894. Bessie would later marry missionary Percy Waterhouse, grandson of John Waterhouse, first General Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions in Australasia. She was the older sister of Methodist missionary Constance Amy Corfield, a mission school teacher on Goulburn Island, Northern Territory, 1916-1920 (her diary is held by the State Library of NSW).

Reference:
Library correspondence file

Waterhouse family by descent; Mossgreen Auctions, Melbourne, December 2017, Lot 210.

Disbound photograph album comprising 65 photographs of views of Kiriwina, in the Trobriand Islands, attached to board with manuscript captions by missionary teacher Bessie Corfield ("Sister Bessie"). Accompanied by 14 loose photographs of the Kiriwina mission and its occupants, and 12 postcard photos, seven of which are written to Bessie's sister, Florence Corfield, in Nowra, NSW.

Album photographs
1. Chief's nephew, dressed with native wealth
2. Chieftainess nursing skull of great chief
3. Sister Bessie’s village school, Tukuankwa, Kiriwina
4. Mission girls sewing class
5. Sister Bessie’s village girls sewing class
6. Sister Bessie’s village women’s class, Tukuankwa.
7. Mission Girls’ House. Kiriwina
8. Women’s class, Kavataria, Kiriwina
9. Beach scene, Tukuankwa, Kiriwina
10. Pandanus tree from which string & rope is made
11. Harvest time. Yams gathered in village
12. Kuladoga. Student, Kiriwina
13. Bomaiosi. Mission girl, Kiriwina
14. Young married girl going to bathe
15. Rev. M.K. Gilmour & carpentry class at work
16. Mission children
17. Cooking pot
18. Kiriwinan girls
19. Dobuan girls
20. Pulitara chief
21. Village feast
22. Native teachers’ houses
23. Rev. Mr. Gilmour & teachers — Fijian, Samoan, Rotuman & Kiriwinan
24. Women’s class, Gwonilababa, Kiriwina.
25. Making fire
26. Married students houses, Kiriwina
27. Station group, Kiriwina (112) [i.e. the number of people in the photograph]
28. Rev. M.K. & Mrs Gilmour & house boys
29. Mission babies, Kiriwina
30. Photograph of Mrs Gilmour; M. Morton Esq., Magistrate; Sister Bessie; R.L. Bellamy Esq., R.M.; Rev. M.K. Gilmour
31. Smoking
32. Banana leaf & native rain mat
33. Canoes, Kiriwina
34. Dakota, sisters boat, Kiriwina
35. Methodist Church, Kiriwina
36. Students’ houses
37. Native girl carrying food
38. Native women & children
39. Rev. M.K. Gilmour's private motor launch, Kiriwina
40. Mission girls sweeping lawn
41. Students & teachers, Mission Station, Kiriwina
42. Mrs. Gilmour & company of youngest students, Kiriwina
43. Pandanus with fruit
44. Paw paw tree
45. Growth in yam garden
46. Native albino child
47. Roots & trunk of Banyan
48. People showing respect to Chief (standing). Chief Food House, sleeping house
49. Native house, Kiriwina
50. Sisters home, Kiriwina
51. Pulitara, chief with eight wives
52. Native women carrying water, Kiriwina
53. Village girls’ school, Kiriwina
54. Women making native mats, Kiriwina
55. Mission girls, Mission Station, Kiriwina
56. Peep at Station, Kiriwina
57. Path from beach, boat house
58. Epali - Rotuman teacher, Kitava, Kiriwina
59. Faasala - Samoan teacher, Kiriwina
60. Path through yam garden, Kiriwina
61. Sister Bessie’s village school, Taiava, Kiriwina
62. Teachers, wives, & families, Kiriwina
63. An old warrior
64. Snake caught on Mission ground
65. Banyan tree, Kiriwina

Loose photographs
66. [Field being ploughed]
67. [Part 1 of panorama of mission grounds, Kiriwina]
68. [Part 2 of panorama of mission grounds, Kiriwina]
69. [Church?]
70. View from sister's house
71. Panorama view from Mission House looking west
72. [View towards boat house]
73. [View of mission grounds, Kiriwina]
74-75. [Mission houses]
76. Harvest dance, Kiriwina, Papua
77. Duplicate print of No. 24
78. Prisoners, Samanai gaol
79. The "Victoria", Mr Osborne's circuit cutter

Postcard prints
80. [Young girl, Papua Methodist Mission postcard], dated 1910
81. Fonai - one of our latest mission girls
82. Kuladoga - one of Mrs G's table boys
83. Duplicate of No. 13 (Bomaiosi. Mission girl) on postcard
84. Village school
85. Photograph of Rev. W.E., Mrs & Miss Bromilow, Joeli & Lebi of Dobu, B.N.G. on postcard, with short message written by Bessie to her sister, postmarked 12 December 1904
86. 'East Cape natives, Brit. New Guinea', on postcard, with short message from Bessie to her sister, dated 3 April 1905
87. Duplicate of No. 64 (Snake caught on Mission ground), on postcard, with message from Bessie to her sister, dated 23 March 1907
88. Part of Mission Station, Kiriwina, Papua, on postcard, with message from Bessie to her sister, dated 3 April 1907
89. Duplicate of No. 40 (Mission girls sweeping lawn), on postcard, with message from Bessie to her sister, dated 29 April 1907
90. [Mission view], on postcard, with message from Bessie to her sister, dated 18 September 1908
91. [2 month old baby], on postcard, with message from Bessie to her sister

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Collection title devised by cataloguer. Titles of photographs taken from information supplied in album and on verso of images (where present). Certain words, terms or descriptions may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.

Dates based Bessie's date of arrival in Kiriwina and dates on postcards.