Sujet

Sombrero, one of the Leeward Islands, in the Caribbean Sea, 1865. Creator: Unknown.

Légende

Sombrero, one of the Leeward Islands, in the Caribbean Sea, 1865. Source of '...the richest natural deposit of phosphate of lime at present known...a report was made to the British Government, but did not meet with that consideration which subsequent events prove it to have deserved. In 1856 the Americans took possession of the island, and in the course of a very short time exported to the extent of 100,000 tons of this valuable fertiliser, to resuscitate the exhausted lands of the Southern States. Subsequently their proceedings attracted the attention of a British surveying expedition, at that time engaged in the West Indies...It appears that the Americans have already quarried away a considerable part of the island, and sold the substance in New York. This transaction led to an official correspondence between the British and American Governments, and eventually the right of the British Crown to the possession of this valuable deposit was acknowledged by the United States Government. Sir Roderick Murchison considers our holding the Island of Sombrero to be of great national importance, in providing our agriculturists, from a British possession, with a plentiful supply of a good substitute for the guano of Peru'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Notre référence

HRM24A26_190

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

21,3Mo (1,7Mo) / 31,8cm x 16,8cm / 3750 x 1983 (300dpi)

Mots clés

transport transportation sea agriculture arts West Indies Caribbean Leeward Islands Lesser Antilles art trade ship ships island British geography color supply location century empire Britain Anguilla newspapers press export print sombrero excrement B&W fertiliser fertilizer engraved engraving sailing ship sailing ships Colour 19th century water transport black & white black and white B W white and black nineteenth century raw materials The Print Collector British Empire geographical feature Illustrated London News ILN newspaper landscape British overseas territory Unknown guano 19th-century bone phosphate of lime Hat Island Tri-Calcium phosphate tribasic calcium phosphate