Papeete-As The

Camera Saw It

A Century Ago

This picture of Papeete, Tahiti's capital, was taken more than a century ago when photography was in its infancy and a photo grapher was very much a "rara avis".

The photograph shows buildings along the waterfront, looking northward from the approximate vicinity of the present post office and yacht haven. The building on the extreme right (partly cut off) is the United States consulate, which was replaced by another building in 1906. (See p. 81.) The photograph was taken by Gustave Viaud, a medical officer in the French Navy, who was stationed in Tahiti for three years from 1859. This was more than 30 years before the French painter Paul Gauguin arrived in Tahiti.

Gustave Viaud was the elder brother of the French novelist Pierre Loti (real name: Julien Viaud), who wrote a celebrated novel about Tahiti called "The Marriage of Loti", The photograph is from an album of 24 of Gustave Viaud's pictures recently published in an edition of 250 copies by Father Patrick O'Reilly, of the Societe des Oceanistes in Paris.

A process perfected in France in 1851 was used to take the photographs. Father O'Reilly has reproduced them from the original negatives which have been re discovered in France. They are the earliest known photographs of Tahiti, and very probably of any island in the South Pacific.—RL.