The album is the continuation from the fourth Chapman album and is in very good condition. It also has a removable beige cloth (linen) cover with dark blue edges; an embroidered roman numerical V is found only on the top portion of the spine of the album; the top cover has `GC` (George Chapman) embroidered in dark blue; the album pages are edge-gilded; the album has a hard grain Morocco red leather binding; silk-finished paper is used on the inside of the album covers; the album has cloth joints.
The album contains a single paper sheet of reduced facsimile of an illustrated birth-day address for the 80th birthday of Sir Sandford Fleming (January 7, 1907); 24 signatures of family members, including those by Ethel and George Chapman, appear on this card along with a short address and chronological time-line of Sandford Fleming's personal and public life (please note that this sheet is analog to one in the fourth (4th) Chapman album). The album contains photographs that document selected activities and personnel of the East Kent Regiment, the Buffs, in Britain (located around Dover), it also presents various landscape and architectural views of the region. In addition, the album contains an extensive visual travel imagery consisting of photographs depicting places in France, Britain, and Italy, as well as the 2nd Egyptian trip in Winter of 1909/10 - photographs of Italy and Egypt are meticulously described.
Chapman himself is depicted throughout the album as Self; Ethel Chapman is captured as EJC (Ethel Jean Chapman) or Ethel. The photographs are of various sizes and processing techniques; they are in chronological order covering the time period from February 1909 to February 1910; the majority of the photographs are dated; all (except a few) photographs have captions; images of Britain, Italy, and Egypt in particular, are (or can be) of particular interest for their captions are very descriptive and include extensive (occasionally anecdotal) architectural, historical, and social narrative.
The following places, events, objects, and people are depicted in photographs found in the album:
Places
France and Spain
- Marseille: Views of the Harbour; Suspension Ferry
- Bayonne: Cathedral (interior and exterior); Views of; Old Fort; Theater
- St Jean de Luz
- Pau: View of; Chateau of King Henry IV of France (exterior and interior); Cliff, Upper Town & Hotel Gassion
- San Sebastian: Town Hall & Public Square; Main Bridge over River Bidossa; Ancient Church
- Biarritz: La Vierge Rock
- Lourdes: Castle; Cathedral (various views)
Britain
- Smeeth: Mersham Church (interior)
- Winchester: View of; Old Market Cross; Cathedral (restoration)
- Lyme Regis
- Exeter: 'an Ancient Church & Mols Coffee House where Drake & other famous sailors used to meet at Armada time'; Cathedral (various views)
- Lynton
- Glastonbury: George Hotel; Market Cross; Abbots Kitchen
- Minehead
- Wells Cathedral (interior and exterior)
- Bath Abbey
- Lyndhurst: Grand Hotel
- Downton
- Romsey Abbey
- Maidenhead: Boulters Lock (various views)
- Cookham: view of River Thames
- Aldershot: York Crescent
- Oxford: Trinity College (exterior and interior); St. John`s College; Martyr's Cross; Sheldon's Theatre, Clarendon Press & Dr. Johnston's House; Bodleian Library; Brasenose College; Old President's House & Cloisters at Magdalen College; New College Chapel (exterior and interior)
- Burford Church & Graveyard
- Gloucester: Cathedral (interior and exterior)
- Chepstow Castle (various views)
- Tintern: Abbey (interior and exterior); Beaufort Hotel
- Raglan Castle (multiple views)
- Monmouth: Stone Bridge
- Ross: Ancient Market House
- Ledbury: Market House
- Malvern Priory Church & Abbey Hotel
- Worcester Cathedral (multiple views)
- Broadway
- Chipping Camden: Old Market House
- Stratford-on-Avon: Old Houses; Bridge & River; Shakespeare Memorial; Shakespeare House; Tudor House 'discovered under plaster only 6 years ago'
- Warwick (various views) & Warwick Castle
- Kenilworth Castle (multiple views)
- Banbury Cross
- Shipton Church
- Beauley
- Inverness: Suspension Bridge, Castle & River
Italy
- Milan: Cathedral of Maria Nascenti (various views)
- Venice: Various architectural views of various parts of the city; Palazzi Guistiniani; Rialto Bridge (multiple views); Palazzo Ca Doro; Statue of the Gen. Bart. Colleoni; Palazzo Ducale; Clock Tower; Great Council Hall, Doge`s Palace; Church of Santa Maria della Salute; Church of Torchello; Staircase of the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo;
- Florence: Panorama of the city; Loggia dei Lanzi; Gothic Church of Santa Croce; Church of San Giovanni Battista; Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore & Campanile; Palazzo Vecchio
- Naples: Panorama of the Bay of Naples; Triumphal Arch; Flower Market on the Gradoni di Chiaia; Piazza de Martiri; Corso Umberto Primo
- Pompeii: Gate of the Forum; Great Theatre; Triumphal Arch of the Emperor Caligula; House of Cornelius Robius (interior); Temple of Apollo
Egypt
- Gizeh: view of the Pyramids
- Lybian Desert
- Fayoum: Sugar-cane Market; View of the ruins of Crocodilopolis-Arsinoe; A Street & the Mosque
- Luxor: Temple of Luxor (multiple exterior and interior views)
- Thebes: Medinet Habu:Temple of Queen Hatasu & Rameses III; Colossi of Memnon
- Karnak (various): Temple of Ammon (multiple views); Festal Temple; Great Hypostyle Hall (various views)
-Assuan: Cataract Hotel; Elephantine Island; Island of Sehel (multiple views); Temple of Philae (multiple views)
- Gorge of Kalabsha
- Rock Temple of Gerf Hosein (Hussein) (interior and exterior views)
- Temple of 'Armada'
- Kasr Ibrim: Ptolemaic Egyptian Temple
- Abu Simbel: Temple of Hathor (multiple interior and exterior views) -extensive caption for the facade
- Halfa, Sudan (various views); Temple of Beheni; Rock of Abusir;
- Temple of Dendur (multiple views)
- Kalabsha: Rock Temple (interior and exterior views)
Events
- The start of our Motor Tour in Devonshire, Aldershot (8 April 1909); Lucas & Self with No1 marching to White Hill, Chobham Ridges for Spectacular Sham Fight before the King, Aldershot (18 May 1909); Tea at the Wellington College Hotel, Aldershot; 'My Commando of Bat. Cyclists: the enemy on Bat. Special Training,' Odiham; Reg. & Coy. Cooks & Kitchen in Camp at Greywell; Officers 1st Buffs & some 2nd Glosters (attached for Mobilisation) at Breakfast, Frensham (29 July 1909); For Tea at the French Horn Hotel, Sonning; Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorien & Staff interrogating an Officers Cavalry Patrol, Shipton (14 Sep. 1909); Gen. Grierson talking to the Duke of Connaught, Farringdon (15 Sep. 1909); Officers assembling at Franklyn Hall for Inter-Div. Conference, Burford (17 Sep 1909); Field Telegraph & Telephone at work, Farringdon; Display by Reg. Gymnasium members at Annual Sports, Aldershot (30 Sep 1909); Annual Dinner of the Association of Past & Present Buffs at Victoria St. Restaurant, London (28 Oct. 1909) (with names listed); Ethel & Violet in a Gondola on the Dead Lagoon, Venice; 'Men hard at work hammering Sun-dried fish to soften it. Almost staple food of the Poor,' Venice; A country cart drawn by a donkey, an ox and a horse, Pompeii; Ethel & Mohamed Aly passing the Pyramids of Abusir, Sakkara; Gayassas unloading Sugar Cane, Wasta; Sudanese etc. with trained pets performing in Street below Savoy Hotel Terrace, Cairo; Ethel in the uncomfortable Sand-cart in which we drove to Medinet Habu (25 Jan 1910); Sakkas (water carriers) filling their goatskin bottles in the River, Luxor; Ethel sitting on the knees of a Statue of Thotmosis I, Karnak; Palms etc. inundated owing to the heightening of the Assuan Dam; Tourist from the Prince of Abbas visiting the Temple of Armada; 'The Italian Egyptologist and Excavator Prof. Bersanti who very kindly explained things to Lambert, M. de Tremont & myself,' Abu Simbel (2 February 1910); Natives who swam the Rapids on air-filled goatskins, Halfa; 'Sailors of the Prince of Abbas at their midday meal eating with their hands out of one dish'
Objects
A typical Mule Cart & Pair, Bayonne; A typical Spanish cart & Oxen, San Sebastian; A typical Country Cart of the Pyrennees District, Pau; Links from the 9th Tee, Arcachon; Crescent House (Chapman's new house in Aldershot); A typical Devon bridge & the River Taw at S. Molton; 25/30 h.p. Maudslay Car (six views); Buffs 'A' & 'B' Polo Team, Aldershot; House Boats near Henley; A typical piece of road between Chepstow & Tintern; Mary Anderson's Cottage at Broadway; Dad's Grave, Mersham (4 Nov 1909); A typical Canal, Venice; Bronze doors by L. Ghiberti, Florence; Deities of Mt. Olympus - painting on the ceiling of the Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti, Florence; Rape of Polyxema - sculpture by Peo Fedi, Florence; Plaster cast of a dead Gladiator, Pompeii; Our Caravan & Camp near the Pyramids, Gizeh; Various depictions of Camel Caravan and Camping activities; Self and my Watson Camera; Egyptian Delta Light Railway Train, Gaballah; Water wheels turned by the Bahr Yusuf Canal, Fayoum; A typical Dahabeeyah 'belonging to Davis, American Egyptologist,' Luxor (wooden flat bottomed sailing two masted boat); Hieroglyphic Writings on Granite Rocks, Assuan; 'Our Nile Steamer Prince of Abbas';
People
Ethel Jean Chapman (Fleming): depicted throughout the album; Jocelyn Chapman; Capt. Tester; Capt. McLaren; Sgt. Martin; Capt. Orwin; Capt. Warr; Sgt. Eaton; Eric, Cecil, Ruby, Mrs & Mr Loyd; Hugh Fleming; Lt. Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorien; 'Our Caravan Staff' (names listed); Group of Sudanese children, Kalabsha; Georges Gattas & Mohammed Ali '2 Drojamans of the Rameses the Great'; 'Ourselves,' Assuan
