Photographs and paintings by Olive and Charles L. Temple

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 161 MSS. Afr. s. 2000 and Afr. t. 37
  • Dates of Creation
      [c1910-1918]
  • Language of Material
      English.
  • Physical Description
      9 volumes, 9 files

Scope and Content

MSS. Afr. s. 2000 

  • Photographs taken in Chad, Cameroon, French Equatorial Africa, northernNigeria and Tenerife, [c1910-1913], including of the journey made by OliveMacLeod and Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Talbot, Nov. 1910-Jan. 1911, through the Territoire Militaire du Tchad; sketches and paintings of northernNigeria, by Charles Temple, [c1913-1918].

MSS. Afr. t. 37 

  • Sketches and oil paintings of northern Nigeria, by Temple, [c1913-1918].

Administrative / Biographical History

Olive MacLeod was the younger daughter of Sir Reginald MacLeod of MacLeod andhis wife Lady Agnes Northcote. Between August 1910 and May 1911 she undertooka journey through Central Africa in the company of Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Talbotwhich she later described in her book Chiefs andcities of Central Africa: across Lake Chad by way of British, French and GermanTerritories (Edinburgh, London; W. Blackwood and sons; 1912), illustratedwith many of the photographs found in this collection. Percy Talbot was adistrict commissioner in southern Nigeria and a fellow of the Zoological andAnthropological Societies. Mrs. Talbot was a keen and experienced botanist.

In 1912 Olive MacLeod married Charles Lindsay Temple CMG. He was theyoungest son of Sir Richard Temple 1st Bt., and his second wife Mary Lindsay.He spent his early career in Brazil before becoming Resident of NorthernNigeria in 1901. He was appointed Chief Secretary of Northern Nigeria in 1910and Lieutenant-Governor in 1914. He retired in 1917 due to ill-health. Some ofthe sketches in this collection were used to illustrate his book Native Races and their Rulers: Sketches and Studies ofOfficial Life and Administrative Problems in Nigeria (London, Cape Town;Argus Printing & Publishing Co. ltd., Way & Co., ltd.; 1918). He diedin 1929 and his wife in 1936.

Access Information

Bodleian reader's ticket required.

Note

Collection level description created by Paul Davidson, Bodleian Library ofCommonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House.

Other Finding Aids

Listed as no. 1230 in Manuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford,Accessions 1978-1994 (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996)1996. A handlist is also available in the library reading room.

Conditions Governing Use

No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.

Related Material

Papers of Hugh Middleton Brice-Smith, including reports on Kano province,northern Nigeria, 1909, by C.L. Temple (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 230); historicalnotes on Bauchi, notes on the history of Kano, [by] Charles Lindsay Temple(ref. MSS. Afr. s. 1531 (5, 6); notes for a handbook of northern Nigeria,[by] Olive Temple, including on natural history, agriculture, languages, and nativeaffairs, c1912-1916 (ref. MSS. Afr. s. 1531).