Collection Online as of July 1, 2022
Veddahs of Ceylon
Albumen print
Image: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.); Paper: 21.3 x 28.1 cm (8 3/8 x 11 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.222
Location
not on view
Fun Fact
The Veddahs were originally animists who believed that plants and inanimate objects had souls.
Description
The Veddahs or Veddas are an indigenous minority in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) that may have been the island’s earliest inhabitants. These men are dressed in typical scant Vedda male garb for the 19th century—loincloths tied with a rope at the waist.
Skeen & Co.
Commercial photographer active in Ceylon (1860-1903).