A portrait photograph showing nine Tahitians on three levels, including eight women and one man. The women are dressed in long, patterned dresses and those standing in the front row are wearing short-rimmed hats. The man, in a decorated maro [pereo], kneels at the front holding a naked-bladed sword in his left hand.

This photograph is typical of Victorian ethnographic photographs that sought to document and classify non-European peoples around the world.

The print is captioned 'Tahitians'

Dr Coppinger records HMS Alert arriving at Tahiti on 6 August 1880. He does not mention the departure date but HMS Alert arrived at the island of Nassau on 27 August 1880, about 1,115 miles [1,847 km] north west of Tahiti.