Image of Queen Ranavalona III
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United States president Grover Cleveland (1837-1908)
United States president Grover Cleveland
(1837-1908)

Photograph probably by B. F. Powelson (1823-1885)
c. 1881-82 Albumen print

Graphics File, Department of Prints and Photographs,
National Portrait Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution
Cloth (lamba akotofahana) presented in 1886 by Queen Ranavalona III to President Grover Cleveland
Cloth (lamba akotofahana) presented in 1886 by Queen Ranavalona III to President Grover Cleveland
Merina peoples, Madagascar
Late 19th century
Silk
National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, 165,581
Madagascar's Queen Ranavalona III
Madagascar's Queen Ranavalona III
Photograph by J. Geyser, c. 1900
Collotype

Postcard Collection, MG-15-9
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives
National Museum of African Art,
Smithsonian Institution

This photograph of Queen Ranavalona III was taken in Algeria, where she was exiled after the French invaded Madagascar in 1896.

 

First Malagasy diplomatic mission to Washington, D.C.
First Malagasy diplomatic mission
to Washington, D.C.

Photographer unknown, c. 1883
Copy of a collotype

Courtesy Zina Andrianarivelo-Razafy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Madagascar to the United States

 

John Lewis Waller as a young man
John Lewis Waller as a young man
Photograph by H. T. Martin, c. 1887-88
Collodion print
Courtesy Kansas Historical Society, Topeka

John Lewis Waller (1850-1907) was the first African-American consul to Madagascar (1891-94). As consul, he pressed the United States government to support Madagascar's struggle to remain independent and sought land in Madagascar where he hoped to establish a colony for African Americans.

Waller was born into enslavement in 1850 in New Madrid, Missouri, the son of Anthony and Maria Waller. Determined to share fully in the promise of America, Waller hoped his professional success would help promote the civil rights of fellow African Americans.