A trip to Gibraltar in 1899
By Marti Crespo
When you acquire the status of a Gibraltarologist of sorts, it is clear that stories and materials related to the Rock can reach you through the most unheard of and unsuspected routes.
In the specific case of the old photographs of Gibraltar that feature in this article, they come from a friend of my mother's, a retired teacher like her from the Faculty of Education of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).
Rosa M. Pujol i Villalonga, when she found out about my obsession with Gibraltar, let me know that in her house, in the Eixample of Barcelona, she had a handful of images from at least 125 years ago that I might find of interest.
It didn't take long for us to meet and, already in her office, she showed me a treasure related to a branch of her maternal family: that of the Shellys, of distant Irish origin.
Specifically, it was an album of "recuerdos de mis hijos" owned by Carolina Correa Sotomayor (Porto, 1838 - Madrid, 1909), Tomás Shelly Calpena's second wife.
Started in Valencia on November 4, 1882, she collected and classified with all the care and appreciation in the world, throughout the last quarter of the 19th century, all kinds of images, clippings, souvenirs and even lockets of hair that some of her traveling sons sent her from all corners of the planet.
With photographs of cities and ports from America to China, passing through Africa and the Suez Canal, it is not surprising that in that well positioned in Spanish society mother of eight children’s album, graphic evidence of Gibraltar, a mandatory stop for many transoceanic ships, was not missing.
Specifically, six of them appear to be from January 1899. There is one of the profile of the Rock, taken from the middle of the bay. There is another, from the land towards the sea, taken from Raglan Battery. And there is also one of the entrance to the Alameda Gardens.
In another, the Piazza appears in the foreground with the building currently occupied by the Parliament of Gibraltar. And on the eastern side of the Rock, there is one that looks towards Europa Point lighthouse and another that immortalises the village of La Caleta and Catalan Bay.
As with most of the images included in the album, it is often difficult to distinguish whether the photographs have been purchased from studios or shops in each place visited or whether they have been taken expressly by Carolina Correa's children or by photographers hired by them.
In the specific case of the half-dozen images from the Gibraltar tour, copies of the last two are circulating on the internet from other archives, which indicates that they must have been acquired during the visit to the square.
It also seems clear that the photo taken from the Battery could be a copy. All, therefore, leads us to think that the entire set of photos was probably bought in situ.
About the exciting life of the Shelly family, about Carolina Correa Sotomayor, Mami, and about her extraordinary photo album (with all the digitised images ), you can find all the information on the Shelly.es website, prepared and maintained by Rosa M. Pujol and other members of the Shelly Villalonga family.
Marti Crespo is a journalist based in Barcelona who has written extensively about Gibraltar's links to Menorca and Catalonia.
