Henri Lemasson papers relating to the bombardment of Papeete, Tahiti, 22 September 1914, and notes made by L. Donier, 30 April 1931.
This is Henri Lemasson’s account of the bombardment of Papeete by two German Navy ships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst with plan of Papeete and notes, 22 September 1914, and notes made by L. Donier, 30 April 1931.
Henry Lemasson was a French Postal and Telecommunications civil servant who was sent to Tahiti in 1895 to become head of the Papeete Post Office from 1895 to 1904 and again from 1912-1920. He also was an amateur photographer whose photographs were chosen to illustrate the first series of stamps created by the French Oceanic Settlement. He met Paul Gauguin in 1895, photographing his hut in Punaauia and his sculptures and they made excursions together in the Tahitian countryside. He was in Tahiti on 22 September 1914 when the two German Navy ships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst bombarded Papeete and destroyed the Post office. Dornier was an official in the civil administration of Papeete and was also present during the bombardment. Lemasson's and Dornier's accounts of the episode in these documents were written in the context of political conflict between the military and civil administration of Papeete: see Conflits pouvoir politique / pouvoir militaire, l’exemple de Tahiti (août-décembre 1914), at http://centenaire.org/fr/print/3271 , which mentions Lemasson.
Purchased as Lot 184 at auction: Tahiti et la Polynésie française, 1768-1964 : lettres, manuscrits et documents depuis les premières missions, rares impressions polynésiennes, importantes lettres autographes de Paul Gauguin, livres et autographes de Pierre Loti et illustrations pour ses oeuvres : vente aux enchères publiques à Paris, le 2 Juin 1969. Catalogue is located at 996.2016/1A1. A note on file by Suzanne Mourot, Associate Mitchell Librarian, 28 August 1972, states "There is no indication in the catalogue as to the provenance of the documents; however, it is known to be the collection of Andre Ropiteau continued by Father Patrick O'Reilly and is for short referred to by collectors and historians as the sale of the Ropiteau-O'Reilly collection." A zoomable version of the map may be seen here.