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Historical African Cultural Scenes

Engravings depicting various historical African scenes, including traditional gatherings, cultural practices, and representations of indigenous peoples in their environments.

King of Ashanti and his guards, engraving, 19th century, Ghana

Historia de Africa. Siglo XIX. Hombre de la tribu Bateke (Alto Alima). Grabado. El Congo y la Creación del Estado Independiente de este nombre. Historia de los Trabajos y Exploraciones Verificados, por Enrique M. Stanley. Editada en Barcelona, hacia 1890. España.

Ethnic groups of Africa: 1 Ashanti, 2 Loango woman, 3 Cameroon, 4 Baluba, 5 Somali, 6 Abyssinian woman, 7 Howa, 8 Herero women, 9 Ovambo, 10 Akka, 11 Zulu, 12 Masai, 13 Wagranda from Uganda, 14 Darfurian, 15 Haussanian, 16 Bushmen, 17 Bushmen woman, 18 Nama or Namaqua, 19 Niam, 20 Dinka, historical illustration, wood engraving, circa 1888

Hernando Cortez (Fernado Cortes - 1485-1547) Spanish conquistador who conquered Mexico, making contact with native Mexicans. Hand-coloured lithograph, 1827.

Buffalo Dance, pl. 8 from the North American IndianPortfolio. Artist: George Catlin, American, 1796-1872

Asia, Laos, Luang Phrabang. Mural inside Wat Mai

Slaves waiting to be auctioned in Virginia 1856.

Negroes just landed from a Slave Ship.. Illustrations. 1810. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. Ethnology , Africa, Africa, North

Marchand Mission, French expedition under Jean Baptiste Marchand to prevent British expansion in northeastern Africa. Halting at Bakr-el-Gazal, Sudan, June 1897. Early Twentieth Century Trade Card

Three African woman, Kaffir woman (left), bush woman, Hottentot woman (right), natives, necklaces, earrings, nude, colonialism, portrait, historical illustration 1881, southern Africa

Einheimische aus dem Gebiet des unteren Kongo, um 1880, Afrika, Historisch, digital restaurierte Reproduktion von einer Vorlage aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, Record date not stated 1f-4903349

Interior of an Eskimo hut, Arctic explorations in the years 1853, 1854, 1855 by Elisha Kent Kane. Old 19th century engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1860

Voodoo dance, Haiti, illustration from L'Illustration, Journal Universel, No 469, Volume XIX, February 19-26, 1852.

Burman music band 'Peoples of the World'.

Cafe of Hammah, Algiers, 1885

Group of Nubians with weapons, Egypt. Coloured lithograph by Louis Haghe after David Roberts, 1849.

African American men vote publically by placing their ballot in the glass jar of their chosen candidate, 1867. Here they are voting to ratify a new state constitution, drafted during the 'Congressional Reconstruction', that protected Freedman's civil rights, while disenfranchising most former Confederates. Hovering in the background are white men, some of whom threaten to discharge employees who vote for the 'radical Yankee constitution' (BSLOC_2019_5_149)

Asia. Indonesia. Men from North Sulawesi, c. 1840. Engraving.

Two cinnamon peelers at work, Esaias Boursse, 1662 Outside, two men are squatting on an uneven and sloping soil. The men belong to the Singalese profession of cinnamon peelers of the caste of the chalias or salagama. The man on the left is wearing a hip rug (veshti, lungi), partly pulled over his left knee. In his left hand he holds a cut a branch of the cinnamon tree. With the peeling knife in his right hand, he cuts the red -brown -colored inner barked loose. The man on the right is signed right from the front. He is dressed in a hip rug (Veshti, Lungi) in a Singalese way wrapped. With his right hand, he brings a peeler along a branch of the cinnamon tree, perhaps he is busy removing the outer bark. Leaf 100 from a sketchbook with 117 sheets. Sri Lanka paper. ink brush Asiatic races and peoples (with NAME). (non-fruit) products of plants or trees: cinnamon. carrying something with carrying-pole Sri Lanka. Colombo

Southern African people, Hottentots, Kaffirs, Tswanas (Botswana) from A. Racinet Historical Costumes Vol 2 Paris 1888

slavery slave trade slave market on Cuba wood engraving 1896,

Sacrificial victims threw down from royal palace terrace, Dahomey, Central Africa, Old 19th century engraved illustration, Le Tour du Monde 1863

Canada (New France). 17th century. Congress of peace between some Indian nations of Canada, chaired by a French governor and an Iroquois, representative on a confederation of six American Indian tribes inhabiting northern New York and Canada. During the conference, the Indians returns a French prisoner. Engraving, 1807. Colored.

MERCADERES DE ESCLAVAS EN TIMOR (MALASIA).

Kangaroo dance among Australian natives, vintage engraved illustration. From the Universe and Humanity, 1910.

Village of the Dajak ethnic group in Borneo, Indonesia, in 1880, Historic, digital reproduction of an original 19th century original, Asia

SLEEPY PUNKAH-WALLAH

Women playing congkak in a Timorese house in Kupang, 19th century. The house is built of bamboo and palm leaves and furnished with benches, armchair and pillows. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Corsi after Alphonse Pellion from Giulio Ferrario's Costumes Ancient and Modern of the Peoples of the World, Florence, 1834.

L'alikhali Yélan-Fodé et sa famille, 1894. Issued in Paris by Firmin-Didot. The image encompasses themes of Blacks, spiritual life, families, and West Africans

America. Indians people havesting corn. Engraving, 19th century.

Various African types, including Ashanti, Loango, Cameroon, Bantu, Somali, Abyssinian, Madagascan, Zulu, Masai, Waganda, Bush couple, Namaqua, Nyam-Nyam, Dinka Date: 19th century

The emperor's eldest son smoking a tobacco pipe with his wife playing the pipa and her attendant in the gardens of the Old Summer Palace, Yuanming Yuan. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Andrea Freschi after Antoine Cardon from Henri-Leonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin and Jean Baptiste Joseph Breton's China, Its Costumes, Arts, Manufactures, etc., Howlett and Brimmer, London, 1824.

Ceremony of ongi or pressing of noses by Maori women at Taranaki with Mount Egmont in distance, from New Zealanders Illustrated, 1847

A funeral in Tahiti (the corpse has been uncovered out of courtesy to an English visitor). Handcolored copperplate engraving from G. T. Wilhelm's "Encyclopedia of Natural History: Mankind," Augsburg, 1804. Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm (1758-1811) was a Bavarian clergyman and naturalist known as the German Buffon.

Colombia. Spanish Mission. Augustinian Recollect friar converting Guahibos Indians. Engraving, 1887.

The representative of the people of Jetuttara gives alms to the poor in the victualling rooms. Watercolour.

The Indian Council, 1852. Eastman, Seth.

Hopi Harvest Dance still image. Postcards. 1907 - 1908. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection. Dance, Indians of North America, Ceremonial dancers, Spectators

Countryfolk of MoroccoDate: 1836

The Hassanyeh Tribe. Illustrations. 1835. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division

The Bayaderes (Deveneyagorn drum, Ramalingam singer, Savaranim flute, dancers: Tille, Veydoun, Ramgoun, Amany, Savundiroun). 1838. Photographs. Jerome Robbins Dance Division

Buffalo Dance. Or Bison Dance. Many North American Plains Indians performed this ceremony which normally coincided with the annual return of the buffalo herds upon which the Indians were dependent

Fijians, 1860. Pacific Islands. Fiji. Engraving. Later colouration.

Indian, Indian Wigwam in Lower Canada, c. 1848, Canada, Historic, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century original, North America

''The Supposed New Tribe of Indians (Montagnais) in Labrador. ', 1891. From "The Graphic. An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper", Volume 44. July to December, 1891.

SINGHALESE OF THE COAST

'BURGHERS' OF CEYLON, SRI LANKA

Clothes, a replica of a bird of prey's feather robe, above lks, e, ee group, digitally restored reproduction of an original 19th century, fashion in Central America, c. 1520, below from left, a warrior from the state of Mexico, then two native auxiliaries of Cortez, a leader, a Mexican feather creeper and a stone club, and a leader from Mexico

Mandombe Men of Congo, Central Africa, engraving based on the English edition, vintage illustration. Le Tour du Monde, Travel Journal, 1881

A dancer performs before a member of the Bombay Staff Corps. It was the disapproval of the British in India which drove Indian dance styles to the brink of extinction. Date: 1888

Negersklaven mit den Túmburah-orchester.. Hurgronje, C. Snouck (Christiaan Snouck), 1857-1936. Photographs. 1888 - 1889. Rare Book Division. Mecca (Saudi Arabia) , Social life and customs, Mecca (Saudi Arabia), Musical instruments , Africa, Blacks , Saudi Arabia , Mecca

Africa. Sierra Leone. Funeral procession. Colored engraving 1880.

A Hindu ascetic or holy man performing self-torture, accompanied by a woman. Gouache painting by an artist of Thanjavur (Tanjore), ca. 1800 ().

The Khuen, the Pung Dam and the Pung Khao (white bellies) are all branches of the Tai ethnic group. The Tai ethnicity refers collectively to the ethnic groups of southern China and Southeast Asia, stretching from Hainan to eastern India and from southern Sichuan to Laos, Thailand, and parts of Vietnam, which speak languages in the Tai family and share similar traditions and festivals, including the water festival. Despite never having a unified nation-state of their own, the peoples also have historically shared a vague idea of a 'Siam' nation, corrupted to Shan or Assam in some places.

Engraving depicting an ancient Egyptian using a threshing board. Dated 19th Century

Africa, digitally restored reproduction of a public domain collector's picture from ca 1900, Liebig picture series The Journey of Mr Urian, (1893)

Puzzled which one to choose!! : Or the king of Timbuctoo offering one of his daughters in marriage to Capt. - anticipated result of ye African mission , Military officers, Marriage proposals, Tribal chiefs, Lyon, G. F. George Francis, 1795-1832. Holt Collection

Masquerade of the Delft students, 1857 (plate 9); Coated adaptives held by the members of the Delftsche Student-Corps den 5den May 1857, representing the Garebeg of Djokjokarta's Sultan and the most characteristic types from the Dutch Indian archipelago. Costumed procession of the students of the Royal Academy in Delft on May 5, 1857. The procession depicts the Garebeg procession of the Sultan of Djokjakarta plus different characteristic Indian types. Ninth plate with the groups numbered 77-87. Part of the series of eight and a half of the shelter pasted magazines.

Camino de Tacubaya a Chapultepec, trajes de Indios Mexicanos = Chemin de Tacubaya a Chapultepec, costumes d'Indiens Mexicains = Road from Tacubaya to Chapultepec, dresses of Mexican Indians.. Prints, Illustrations. 1869. General Research Division. Mexico City (Mexico) , Description and travel

Flagellation of a Samboe slave (person with one quarter white ancestry). In the background are two Europeans and two black slave men with whips, 1796, Historical, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century original.

Two Hindu ascetics or holy men, one holding a sword in a scabbard (left), the other smoking a hookah (right). Gouache painting, ca. 1880 ().

People purchasing drinks from a cocoa vendor as others sit resting under a tree in fog. Lithograph by Engelmann after S. Baptiste, 1827.

A visitor being carried in a palanquin. Tonkin, French Indochina. Vietnam, Asia. Thirty months in Tonkin 1885 by Doctor Charles Edouard Hocquard (1853 - 1911) Le Tour du Monde 1890

Africa. Sierra Leone. Funeral procession. Colored engraving 1880.

Pocahontas saving the life of Captain John Smith in 1608. The 1870 popular print was published by the New England Chromolithograph company (BSLOC_2020_1_147)

Masked dance, painting by the Tzutuhil artist Miguel Chávez Petzey, Casa K'ojom in Jocatenago, Jocatenago, Guatemala, Central America

Flagellation of a Samboe slave (person of one-quarter white descent) . In the background are two Europeans and two black slave-men with whips, 1796, Historic, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century original

South America. Peru. Indigenous Peruvians. Engraving, 1855.

Picture series from East Africa, Maasai on the move, digitally restored reproduction of a collective picture from c. 1900, in the public domain, exact date unknown

Two priests guard one of theinternal temples at themajestic Angkor Wat complex.Date: 1868

Seminole Indian babies, Florida , Tichnor Brothers Collection, postcards of the United States

Punishing the absence of doctrine. South American school. Costumbrism. Painting.

Kamehameha V and his court, Constitutional King of Hawaii. Lot Kapuaiwa, Mysterious Taboo (1830 - 1872). Hawaii, United States. Trip to the Hawaiian Islands 1855 by Charles de Varigny, French adventurer, diplomat, and writer. Old engraving El Mundo en la Mano 1878

Indias de San Blas - Rep. de Panama - Indians of San Blas - Rep. of Panama , Indigenous peoples, Children, Cuna Indians, Tichnor Brothers Collection, postcards of the United States

African peoples, 1 and 2 Mpongwe from Gabon, 3 Arabs from Morocco, 4 Arabs from southern Tunis, 5 Fellah, 6 and 7 Copts, 8 Koto from Niger, 9 Fan, 10 Berbers, 11 Dar Fur Negro, 12 Nubians, 13 Congo Negro, 14 Zulu, 15 Bagirmi-boy, 16 Monbuttu, 17 Niam Niam, 18 Shulu Negro, 19 and 20 Abyssinians, 21 and 22 Hottentotten, 23 Bechuana-girl, 24 Akka, 25 and 26 Bushmen, 27 Sakalange from Madagascar, 28 Swahili from Zanzibar, 29 and 30 Somali, an illustration from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon, an encyclopedia from 1897

A messenger delivering a message to a prince or noble. India; early 19th Century. ;French; lithograph; By Marlet 1828

Abyssinia. Call to prayer. Photogravure from a photograph by Dr. G. Schweinfurth. 19th century. Colorised.

The different stages of a sanyasi eating the warm raw flesh of a goat. Gouache painting by an Indian artist.

Funeral of the Tuinamba people, Brazil. Engraving, 19th century.

Pocahontas saving the life of Capt. John Smith. Date 1870

Kleidung, Mode in Mittelamerika, Mexiko, Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts, von links, ein Poblano, ein mexikanischer Bürger, dann ein Schüler des Priesters...

Ninpanda, from Kaffiris illustrated.Zulu War, images taken from the kafirs Illustrated ,. Museum: BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDRES, UK. Author: G. F. ANGAS.

Mary Mitchell Slessor (2 December 1848 - 13 January 1915) was a Scottish Presbyterian missionary to Nigeria. Once in Nigeria, Slessor learned Efik, one of the numerous local languages, then began teaching. Because of her understanding of the native language and her bold personality, Slessor gained the trust and acceptance of the locals and was able to spread Christianity while promoting women's rights and protecting native children

ALBUM FILIPINO - TRAJES Y COSTUMBRES DE MANILA - INDIOS DE LAS CERCANIAS DE MANILA - LITOGRAFIA SIGLO XIX. Author: BALTASAR GIRAUDIER y JOSE RIBELLES (1778-1835). Location: MUSEO DE AMERICA-COLECCION. MADRID. SPAIN.

Preparation of Kava-Kava or Kawa-Kawa, a traditional drink of the Western Pacific region, which is consumed mainly as a ceremonial drink on religious and cultural occasions, here among the South Sea Islanders / Zubereitung des Kava-Kava oder Kawa-Kawa, ein traditionelles Getränk des westpazifischen Raume, das vor allem als Zeremonialgetränk bei religiösen und kulturellen Anlässen konsumiert wird, hier bei den Südseeinsulanern, Historisch, historical, digital improved reproduction of an original from the 19th century / digital restaurierte Reproduktion einer Originalvorlage aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, Originaldatum nicht bekannt.

Russian convicts in Siberia. Interior of prison in Kara. Date: 1898

Zulu village

Members of Tribe and Typical Shelter, Africa

Seminole Indian Babies, Florida , Tichnor Brothers Collection, postcards of the United States

The new fire, domestic pagan ritual with the devil by Fra Bernardino de Sahagun From The Code of Florence ""Historia general de las cosas de Nueva Espana"" in Spanish and Nahuatl, facsimile, 16th century

'Seminole Nation' holds 'Mother's Day', Florida , Tichnor Brothers Collection, postcards of the United States

Asia. India. Brahmins workhipping in Benares. Engraving. 19th century. Later colouration.

Traditional Indian Costume #1, World Fashion - Racinet

Seville, December 5, 2025. Nativity scene at the Cajasol Foundation. Photo: María Guerra Archsev.

Musikunterricht in Japan im Jahre 1870, Historisch, digitale Reproduktion einer Originalvorlage aus dem 19. Jahrhundert, Originaldatum nicht bekannt

Seminole Indian Babies, Florida , Tichnor Brothers Collection, postcards of the United States

Lynching of C.J. Miller, at Bardwell, Kentucky, July 7th, 1893. Illustrations. 1894. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. African Americans , History , 1877-1964, Lynching, Blacks, Kentucky, Lynchings

Hindu funeral ceremony with body on a bier about to be cremated, surrounded by mourners and musicians with horns and cymbals. Handcoloured lithograph from Friedrich Wilhelm Goedsche's "Vollstaendige Völkergallerie in getreuen Abbildungen" (Complete Gallery of Peoples in True Pictures), Meissen, circa 1835-1840. Goedsche (1785-1863) was a German writer, bookseller and publisher in Meissen. Many of the illustrations were adapted from Bertuch's "Bilderbuch fur Kinder" and others.

Nine African Tribe Members, Africa

America. Colombia. Witote people inhaling snuff. Engraving, 19th c. Author: Barbant.

Passage from berésina. (IT)

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