These two photos on board and near a ship offer a glimpse into the tourist experience of children travelling to the Indies in the first half of the twentieth century. The first photo shows both white and Eurasian children. The children’s dress indicates that the ship has already arrived in the tropics. The caption beneath the second photo, which was made in the port of Belawan in Deli (Sumatra), reads: ‘Jacques returning from a walk with Ben. They have just told Kees, who is ill and confined to his cabin, what they have seen on their walk.’
1. Photo of children on board the SS Rembrandt of the Netherlands Steamship Company (Stoomvaart Maatschappij ‘Nederland’), 1923. [KITLV 52048]
2. Photo of Ben and Jacques in front of Kees’s cabin in the port of Belawan (Sumatra), around 1940. [KITLV 121826]