Lower Congo photographs
name: label: Collector
content: Roget, Léon, Major, 1865-1929
place: label: Place
content: Africa
label: Place
content: Congo (Democratic Republic)
label: Place
content: Boma (Congo)
abstract: label: Summary
content: Photographs assembled by Major Leon Roget, 1858-1909, in 1886 and 1888 in Boma, Congo Free State. Major Roget had organized the first companies of Force publique and had become its first commander (1886-1888). 

Most of the images are described in captions written on separate sheets by Rene J. Cornet, author of "La Bataille du Rail." Some images show the building of the railroad of the lower Congo (Matadi-Kinshasa), Katanga, and relate to the Belgian occupation and geological exploration of the Southeastern province and Maniema of the Belgian Congo by his father, Jules Cornet, 1865-1929. 

The majority of the images show architecture and colonial life in Boma and Matadi. They include a balloon ascent in 1889, a group of African men and women, African troops and African women with scarification. The most remarkable photographs include a picture of a Kongo burial ground, a studio photograph of a "horizontale" in Sierre Leone and a portrait of Makoleka, a "feticheur," who was executed for murder.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 53 Photographic prints ((1 album), black & white, 12 x 17 cm.)
label: Extent
content: 53 Negatives (photographic) (dupe negs, black & white, 4 x 5 in.)
label: Extent
content: 53 Photographic prints (dupe prints (1 v.), black & white, 12 x 17 cm.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1886-1888
container: label: Container
content: Item 53
label: Container
content: Box 1
label: Container
content: Volume 1
custodhist: label: Custodial History note
content: Purchased, 1997. Conserved through a preservation grant funded by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee, 2006.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: EEPA.1997-013
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographic prints
label: Type
content: Negatives (photographic)
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Images indexed by negative number.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic prints