Olive MacLeod was the younger daughter of Sir Reginald MacLeod of MacLeod and his wife Lady Agnes Northcote. Between August 1910 and May 1911 she undertook a journey through Central Africa in the company of Mr. and Mrs. P.A. Talbot which she later described in her book Chiefs and cities of Central Africa: across Lake Chad by way of British, French and German Territories (Edinburgh, London; W. Blackwood and sons; 1912), illustrated with many of the photographs found in this collection. Percy Talbot was a district commissioner in southern Nigeria and a fellow of the Zoological and Anthropological Societies. Mrs. Talbot was a keen and experienced botanist.

In 1912 Olive MacLeod married Charles Lindsay Temple CMG. He was the youngest son of Sir Richard Temple 1st Bt., and his second wife Mary Lindsay. He spent his early career in Brazil before becoming Resident of Northern Nigeria in 1901. He was appointed Chief Secretary of Northern Nigeria in 1910 and Lieutenant-Governor in 1914. He retired in 1917 due to ill-health. Some of the sketches in this collection were used to illustrate his book Native Races and their Rulers: Sketches and Studies of Official Life and Administrative Problems in Nigeria (London, Cape Town; Argus Printing & Publishing Co. ltd., Way & Co., ltd.; 1918). He died in 1929 and his wife in 1936.