The discovery of the 'Selametan' photo

 A picture is worth a thousand words, well we history lovers know that already, right?

 

Recently I acquired a collection of photo albums who belonged to the Dinger family. A family originally from the Netherlands but living for many years in Java.

 1 Album in particular is full of little and middle shaped photos. But the last two pages contains two bigger photos. One of them was already removed and contained some text on the back. These photos are really interesting. When I posted the other photo with the ‘selametan’ some people on Instagram asked me: who is the man in the opening of the door? Well also that was a little mystery to me…

Later I was browsing through this album but I couldn’t see any more information about the photos.

Still, I was wondering and suddenly I got an idea; the last photo has some text information on the backside, what if that was the same with the selametan photo? Could there also be more information on the backside? 

 

So, I removed the rope that combines all papers and I started to warm up my water cooker….I know it could be dangerous but with a steady hand but a more bouncing heartbeat I started to hold this page and photo circling above the steam…

And I was lucky…the glue on the back of the photo was getting loser and after 2 minutes and 2.000 heartbeats more I had the photo in my hands…

And wow! There was text on the backside…            

Saya senang!

The text reveals all the names, and it turned out that the unknown guy in the doorstep is the director of the N.V. Pharmaceutische Import Maatschappij Helmig in Surabaya (free translated as the Pharmaceutical Import Company) with on the right his family and employees. 

But for us…unfortunately the working people (who are playing the leading role in this picture) are not named at all…they were named in a derogatory way as ‘inlandsch personeel’ = native employees. 

The text on the backside is in Dutch: 

"Slamatan feestmaaltijd inzegening van het ingebruik genomen nieuw kantoor en pakhuizen

In den deurpost H. Moed Helmig.

Groep inlanders rond den disch (Inlandsch personeel)

Europeanen: voorste rij van links naar rechts:

Wanda Helmig Moor Helmig Pop Helmig kinderjuffrouw

Achterste rij:

Collonel (Engelsman) kodak agent Wijnaldum (assistent apotheker) Siddré heer Raven (Directeur) Peters (agent te Batavia)

Soer. dec 1919, Siddré"

Finally, we know the story behind this beautiful photo, and we have a date: December 1919! And a place: Surabaya! According to the text the selametan was a celebration of the opening of the new office and the warehouses. 

 The text reveals the name of the Europeans: With at the front the Helmig family: wife Wanda, daughters Moor and Pop companied by their nanny. Behind them are mister Collonel (Englishman) the kodak agent, mister Wijnaldum (assistant of the pharmacy), mister Siddré, mister Raven (director) and mister Peters (the agent of the Batavia branch (what now is the capital city of Jakarta). 

 

 

Let’s have a look at the other picture: 

 

Here we see the colonial and imposing building of the company with the apotheek (pharmacy), and the logo: PIM. We see people walking across the street and a carriage with horse. 

Next to the carriage we see a street name sign: Aloon Tjontong. On the backside we read that is the side wing of the head office. And also the date: February 17 1920. 

Sadly for us the building is not existing anymore, but the street name is stil alive and kicking:  Alun-alun Contong. 

 

Next time I would like to dedicate a blog about mister Moed Helmig and his company.