Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes:
Alice Seeley Harris
About Alice Seeley Harris
Alice Seeley Harris was essentially one of the first people to use photography as a vehicle for a human rights campaign.
Alice was born in 1870 to parents Alfred and Caroline Seeley in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England. Alice was married to Reverend John Hobbis Harris. They had 4 children: Alfred John, Margaret Theodora, Katherine Emmerline, and Noel Lawrence. For many years, Alice resided in Frome, Somerset, England. She passed away in 1970 at the age of 100.
When Alice was just 19 years old, she entered the Civil Service. In her free time, she volunteered with Frederick Brotherton Meyer’s mission work at Regent’s Park Chapel and Christ Church in Lambeth. When Alice left the Civil Service, she entered Doric Lodge, the Region Beyond Missionary Union’s (RBMU) Missionary Training college. It was here that Alice met her husband, John. In 1897, Alice was granted permission to go to the Congo Free State.
Just 4 days after their wedding, Alice and John left for the Congo Free State as missionaries with the Congo Balolo Mission. They arrived in the Congo three months after departing on the SS Cameroon. Alice and John were stationed from 1898 to 1901 at the Mission Station at Ikau. Alice and John were on furlough from 1901 to 1902. In 1902, they became stationed at the Mission Station at Baringa, which is a village where the Democratic Republic of the Congo now lies.
While stationed in the Congo, Alice taught English to the young Congolese. During this time, she also took pictures of the Congolese with her Goerz-Anschutz Folding Camera (manufactured from 1896 to 1926). It's been proposed that Alice was given the camera by Harry Guinness, who worked with the Congo Balolo Mission.
The Berlin Conference of 1885 was a meeting between European powers to set up the rules of engagement. However, no territorial claims were finalized. Behind the scenes, Belgian King Leopold II had men working to get countries to support his mission to increase his personal wealth by seizing the Congo. Leopold was endeared by the Congo's vast natural resources. King Leopold II of Belgium exploited the land and natives to maximize his profits. After the invention of the rubber inflatable tire by John Dunlop, the rubber demand was at an all time high. Leopold had men to force the natives to harvest the rubber for Belgium. These men included armed British, Italian, Swedish, and African soldiers thate were under Europen direction.
Leopold's men forced the natives to go out into the forest, sometimes for weeks at a time, to harvest rubber. The men kidnapped, raped, murdered, cut off limbs, and cannibalized the natives' families. Alice documented these horrendous crimes against humanity.
One man in particular had a profound effect on Alice. His name was Nsala. One day, he arrived at the missionary clutching a parcel. The parcel was the hand and foot of his five year old daughter wrapped in banana leaves. Nsala's daughter had been killed and cannibalized by the sentries. Alice then took the picture below of Nsala posing with the remains on the veranda of her home. In 1904, Alice and John wrote to the government about the issues in Baringa, using Nsala as an example for one of the thousands of men that had lost their families to Leopold's men.
Alice and John briefly returned to Britain in 1902. Alice’s photos were used in Regions Beyond, a magazine dedicated to the Congo Balolo Mission. In 1904, Alice’s photos were used in a pamphlet titled Congo Slavery by Mrs. H. Grattan-Guinness and in King Leopold’s Rule in Africa, by E.D. Morel, who went on to found the Congo Reform Association
In the fall of 1905, John wrote to E.D. Morel to propose a magic lantern tour with Alice's photos. Missionaries during this time often used magic lantern lectures to raise money for the mission trips, which were very expensive. John thought that Alice presenting would appeal to women and children, but Morel was strongly against the idea. Therefore, the first lectures were done primarily by John. However, in 1905, Alice and John came to the United States of America to present her images. Because of an increased demand for the lectures, Alice and John split up, to cover more ground. In 49 different cities, Alice and John exposed the atrocities in the Congo by displaying her images on a magic lantern. The SoundCloud clip above is a commercially available lecture by W.R. Riley, who often wrote lectures based on Congo Publications.
In 1905, the New York American used Alice’s photos to expose King Leopold II. In 1908, after the Congo Free State became the Belgian Congo, Alice and her husband became organizing and traveling secretaries of the Congo Reform Association. In April 1911, Alice and John became organizing secretaries of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines’ Protection Society. In 1912, when they finally returned to England, Alice and John released a book called Present Conditions in the Congo. This book contained Alice’s photos.
In 1933, John was knighted for his humanitarian efforts. Alice became Lady Alice. She once said “Don’t call me Lady!”, which serves as the title for Canadian author Judy Pollard Smith’s biography on Alice Seeley Harris: “Don’t Call Me Lady: The Journey of Lady Alice Seeley Harris”.
In 1970, when Alice was 100 years old, she was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 for a segment called “Women of Our Time”. Alice's interview can be found in full below.
