The Lijst der Platen (“List of Plates”) of De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh was the index of the twenty-four photographic plates around which G. B. Hooijer built his narrative of the Dutch outposts of Groot-Atjeh in the period 18931896. Because Hooijer described his text as a toelichting der platen — an explanation of the plates — the list functions as the structural table of contents of the whole work.

The plates

The list, printed with the page number of each plate, enumerated in order:

The optical character recognition of the list is defective in several places, and a number of entries — including views of Anagaloeng itself and of the interior of Anagaloeng — appear in the narrative without recoverable list entries.

Character of the images

The plates were documentary photographs rather than battle art. They showed bentengs seen from outside and inside; the ijzerdraadversperring (wire entanglement) surrounding the parapets; barrack roofs, kitchens, bath-places and flagstaffs; officers and men grouped before their quarters in undress; the fourteen-day vivres transport with its ox-carts, coolies and rearguard; the terrain of rice-fields, coconut groves and kampong (village) hedges through which the columns had to fight; and stretches of the Atjeh-rivier valley with the mountains beyond. Hooijer used them to identify individual officers by name — among them Van der Wedden, Schadée, Zijdveld, Zon, Dijkstra, Colijn, Engelbert van Bevervoorde, Van Delden, Kastens and the medical officers Nanta and Tromp — and to read off the ethnic composition, dress and mood of the garrisons.

Significance

The list preserves the intended sequence and titling of one of the few systematic photographic surveys of the Dutch buitenposten (outer posts) in Groot-Atjeh during the alliance period, and it fixes the identity of places — Tjot Goeë, Biloel, Lam Koenjit, Toengkoeb, Kroeng Kali, Masdjid Siem, Tjot Rang, Lam Barih, Anagaloeng, Lam Soet, Kroeng Gloempang and Senelop — that were burnt or slighted within weeks of being photographed.

See Also

Source

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, Lijst der Platen (unpaginated, p. 8).