CONGO (DRC), FROM THE INDEPENDENT STATE TO THE BELGIAN CONGO - Lot 57

CONGO (DRC), FROM THE INDEPENDENT STATE TO THE BELGIAN CONGO (1908–1910) Important amateur photo album, Boma, Matadi, and Banane, 95 period silver gelatin and citrate prints Album compiled in a notebook from the State Middle School in the Congo (printed label on the cover, dated 1908–1910), cloth-bound spine, containing 95 period prints of various sizes mounted on the pages, numerous handwritten captions in ink and annotations on the negatives, most dated between September 1908 and January 1910. A remarkable record of colonial life in Boma, then the capital, at the very moment of Belgium’s annexation of the Independent State of the Congo (November 1908), which gave rise to the Belgian Congo. The album documents the sea voyage (ship’s band led by Mr. Dubois; named passengers: Malherbe, Lambin, Zorn, Andrion, de Meulemeester), the arrival in Matadi, the Matadi-Léopoldville railway, and then daily life in Boma: administrative buildings, dated bushfires, the Kalamu Bridge, an excursion to Banane, interiors of the plantation house, domestic scenes, and hunting scenes. The collection stands out for its reference to a “Photo Club Excursion to Matadi,” the photographer’s technical annotations (exposure time, aperture), and above all by the identification by name of several Congolese subjects (Mr. Goma Niama, Camille Teché, Mr. and Mrs. Jobé)—a rarity in colonial photography of this period. Portraits of soldiers from the Force Publique and police officers. Yellowing and partial discoloration in some prints; a few faded prints; the collection is in good overall condition. Note: The three photo albums presented in lots [n57], [No. 58], and [No. 59] come from the same family collection and were compiled by the same person, a civil servant of the Independent State of the Congo working in the judicial system, who was stationed there from 1903 to 1905 and again in 1907. Mounted in reused school notebooks from the École Moyenne de l’État, they feature the same handwriting, the same system of pencil captions, and continuous numbering of the prints.