Cute knickered Brit

I happened across a photo archive, yesterday, of old photographs of historical interest—Picture History. Many very beautiful photographs and portraits of historic figures.

One that particularly caught my eye was a 1923 portrait of Ethiopia’s Haile Salassie. I was peripherally aware of him before, but the portrait is so arresting that I wanted to learn more about him. The man was positively regal and much respected, admired, and even beloved by the rest of the world. Here is a brief account of his life and his amazing speech before the League of Nations in June 1936. Perhaps the more the world changes, the more it stays the same.

I spent a long time viewing the photographs in the Middle East section of the archives. There are some beautiful photos of the Bedouins and their tents. That prompted me to learn more about them and their culture. It wasn’t until I came to this picture of two Arab men that I literally spit coffee. You have to wonder how the photograph was ever captioned the way it is because the young fellow practically screams “I am a Brit!” in his knickers and woolen stockings (and wrist watch). I can’t decide whether it is truly funny or truly tragic.

The young British fellow is also captured in photographs here and here (that one also made me spit coffee) and here. The latter photograph states the Arab men are Druze, which I don’t believe is true. They are standing in front of the same Bedouin tent as in the other photos and the clothing the Arab men are wearing is traditional Bedouin attire. And the Druze weren’t/aren’t tent dwellers.

Here is a particularly nice photograph of the men’s quarters/guest receiving room of a Bedouin tent with the fire pit for preparing tea or coffee for a guest—which is a very important part of Bedouin hospitality and culture. Same tent, same British guy. I am curious who the two men on the left are. They don’t have the same head gear as the Bedouin. Was something being negotiated?

This is another mislabeled photograph of Three Arab Men where the first one is wearing a bow tie, a lapeled suit jacket and white cuffed trousers beneath his robe. I’m guessing he’s pretty British, too. Not sure about the second fellow, though. The first guy in the photo also shows up with our cute little knickered Brit in this picture also labeled as a Druze group. Same tent as in the rest

The photographs were supposedly taken in 1898. What was going on in 1898 between the British and the Bedouin? I thought perhaps issues over the old Aswan Dam that started construction in 1898. But one of the other photographs shows the British guy with a crew of Bedouins sporting rifles. Seems kind of military-ish. I wonder where the photographs were taken.

It’s all kind of a puzzle, not helped in the least by the captioning.

And what do you make of these two Sheikhs? I’m a bit skeptical of the one on the left.

Well, as I said, the photographs are fascinating and many are absolutely gorgeous and worth viewing on that basis alone. Unfortunately, for a site that claims to be a historical resource, the captioning suggests otherwise. There should be some attempt to fact check the photographs. Just because a bunch of guys stand around wearing keffiyehs (and robes) doesn’t mean they’re all Arab. I don’t think anyone ever made the same error with photographs of Lawrence of Arabia, did they?