← Religion & Culture

Historical Depictions of African Cultures

Engravings depicting traditional African life and ceremonies, illustrating cultural practices and historical contexts in 19th-century Africa.

Village of a tribe in Central Africa. Journey across Africa, from Zanzibar to Benguela by Verney Lovett Cameron

Slave market in Zanzibar. Engraving by Hildebrand (1882).

A tribal chief's home in Uganda, Africa. Old XIX century engraved from Le Tour du Monde 1864

HISTORIA DE AFRICA. S. XIX. SUDAN. "TORTURAS A LOS DERVICHES DEL MAHDI POR ORDEN DE LOS OFICIALES INSURRECTOS DE EMIN BAJA". Grabado de "L'Illustration, Journel Universel". S. XIX.

Natives of the kingdom of Ardra (Benin). Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Antonio Sasso from Giulio Ferrario's Ancient and Modern Costumes of all the Peoples of the World, Florence, Italy, 1843.

This drawing by Louis Delaporte is one of dozens he drew during his two-year venture (1866-68) with the Mekong Exploration Commission sponsored by the French Ministry of the Navy, the intention of which was to lay the groundwork for the expansion of French colonies in Indochina. Traveling the Mekong by boat, the small French delegation voyaged from Saigon to Phnom Penh to Luang Prabang, then farther north into the uncharted waters of Upper Laos and China's Yunnan province, before returning to Hanoi in 1868 by foot, accompanied by porters and elephants.

Preparations for the marake dance, Wayana Indians tribe, French Guiana, South America. Drawing by Edouard Riou (1833 - 1900) From Cayenne to the Andes (1878-1879) by Jules Crevaux (1847 - 1882) Le Tour du Monde 1880

A witch taken to the stake, Tanzania, East Africa. Drawing by Edouard Riou (1833 - 1900) The lakes of equatorial Africa, exploration voyage 1883-1885 by Victor Giraud (1858-1898) Le Tour du Monde 1886

Village of a tribe in Central Africa. Journey across Africa, from Zanzibar to Benguela by Verney Lovett Cameron

Arrival of Nsama the bride of Kamis to Hara. The Last Journals of David Livingstone Scottish missionary and explorer, 1866-1873. Old engraving El Mun

Feeding slaves in Congo around 1885, authentic, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century model, exact date of depiction unknown, historical, Several people gather outdoors for a meeting surrounded by trees and landscape

Washing clothes, Santo Domingo, 1873. Artist: Unknown

A Ba-yanzi execution whereby the head of the victim is held in a contraption which on beheading will catapult the head in the air, leaving the rump tied to the ground. Coloured wood engraving after E.J. Glave and H. Ward.

Ceremonies at the funeral of a child, Mofou ethnic group, Chad. Central Africa. Drawing by Ivan Pranishnikoff (1841 - 1909) Journey from Borno to Baguirmi 1872 by Dr. Gustav Hermann Nachtigal (1834 - 1885) Le Tour du Monde 1880

Exchanging Citizens for Horses - Slavery in the Antebellum American South

c.1838 Art/Book Illustration, Hawaii, Oahu, Honolulu, Native Hawaiians in traditional village

Medicine man on the Marshall Islands, historical engraving, 1883

Women from King Mutesa I palace being led to torture, Africa. Old XIX century engraved from Le Tour du Monde 1864

Ritual healing from gunshot wounds. The Last Journals of David Livingstone Scottish missionary and explorer, 1866-1873. Old engraving El Mundo en la

nineteenth century Illustration of a Danakil tribal people, in Ethiopia. 1852

an offering before capt. cook, in the sandwich islands (hawaii), illustration from book published in 1785

Native African prophet returns from an otherworld journey, during which he has met and consulted the tribal spirits. Date: 1868

Journey to the sources of the Nile. African natives hostile, vintage engraved illustration. Journal des Voyage, Travel Journal, (1880-81).

Family of Native Americans before a teepee in a jungle. A man in feather headdress and feather skirt holds up a bird. A tattooed woman and child celebrate. Wigwam in the middle of a palm trees. Indians. Handcoloured copperplate engraving from The World in Miniature, or Panorama of the Costumes, Manners & Customs of All Nations, John Bysh, London, 1825.

Traditional group of musicians from the kingdom of Baguirmi, Cameroon. Central Africa. Drawing by Ivan Pranishnikoff (1841 - 1909) Journey from Borno to Baguirmi 1872 by Dr. Gustav Hermann Nachtigal (1834 - 1885) Le Tour du Monde 1880

Traditional mandaya house, Mindanao, Philippines island. Indonesia. Journey to the Philippines and Malaysia by Dr. J. Montano 1879-1881. Old 19th century engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1906

Senegalese people, c1890. Artist: Unknown

Colour illustration depicting a Tribal King welcoming French officers. Dated 20th Century

Raids for slaves by the Moors. Africa. 19th century. Photogravure after an illustration by R. Atkinson. Colorised.

The King of Florida and his senior tribesmen drink a specially prepared herbal drug concoction known as cassine. Date: 1569

THE EXPEDITION TO ABYSSINIA

History of Africa. 19th century. Riamba dance in Mukenge, Congo. Engraving. El Congo y la Creacion del Estado Independiente de este nombre. Historia de los Trabajos y Exploraciones Verificados (The Congo and the Founding of its Free State. A Story of Work and Exploration), by Henry M. Stanley. Edited in Barcelona, ca.1890. Spain.

The execution of slaves by means of beheading by the Bakuti, near Equator Station. Wood engraving.

King Mutesa's reception, Africa. Old XIX century engraved from Le Tour du Monde 1864

KHONDS FROM KHONDISTAN. Khonds, or Kandhs are an aboriginal tribe of India, inhabiting the tributary states of Orissa and Srikakulam, in the Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh.

THE SOUDAN (SUDAN), FRIENDLY NATIVES DOING HOMAGE TO THE SHEIK EL MORGANI

Africa. Niam-Niam warriors. Cromolithograph. "La conquista de Africa" (The conquest of Africa), by Alfredo Opisso. Volume III. Published in Barcelona (Spain) by Molinas y Maza editores, 1911.

Homestead of the So-Called beach walkers (San or Khoi) Just North of the Orange River's Mouth. The beach walkers and their shelves on the beach; A flight flamingos in the background, whale bones and shells in the foreground. The beach leaveers is the name that Gordon gave this San people.

Slaves crossing a forest of the dead, slave hunters in the Congo in 1868, Historic, digitally restored reproduction of an original 19th century artwor...

Kashmiri boatmen rows boats in the waters of Dal-Lake in Srinagar Summer Capital Of Indian Kashmir, India. Trip to Punjab and Kashmir by Guillaume Lej

Hawaiian Islands or Sandwich Island. Funeral of a chiel.

The market place at Kumasi before the arrival of the British forces during the 2nd Ashanti War. In 1873, after decades of an uneasy relationship between the British and the Acing people of central Ghana, the British attacked and virtually destroyed the Asanti capital of Kumasi, and officially declared Ghana a crown colony on 24 July 1874. Date: 18 October 1874

Burial of a Saccha, Colorado Indian. Peru, South America. Amazon and mountain ranges by Charles Wiener Mahler, 1879-1882. Old 19th century engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1906

History of Africa. 19th century. The Congo. Musical dance evening at Mbete, near Banza Manteka. Engraving by W. Meyer. El Congo y la Creacion del Estado Independiente de este nombre. Historia de los Trabajos y Exploraciones Verificados (The Congo and the Founding of its Free State. A Story of Work and Exploration), by Henry M. Stanley. Edited in Barcelona, ca.1890. Spain.

West Asian fashionable dress in antiquity, from left, a Kefti man with a bandage, then a Cherite or Cheta, then a man from a desert tribe east of Palestine, a man from Purasate, a hostile sea people from the time of Ramses III, and a distinguished man from Middle Syria, digitally enhanced reproduction of a 19th century illustration

Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552). Spanish missionary. The saint resurrect a dead buried in Colima, near Cape Comorin (India), 1544. French Engraving, 1850.

African indigenous people in 1880, men of the Mitall tribe from the area of Mvolo in the south of Sudan, on the left a Goggo, Mittou-Madi, in the midd...

Tail Dancers Of Dahomey Artist Unknown Culver Pictures Inc.

Traditional dwelling of the Mofou ethnic group, Chad. Central Africa. Drawing by Ivan Pranishnikoff (1841 - 1909) Journey from Borno to Baguirmi 1872 by Dr. Gustav Hermann Nachtigal (1834 - 1885) Le Tour du Monde 1880

EEUU. Mercado de esclavos negros. Grabado de 1853.

Sacrifice of slaves observed during the Stanley Expedition

THE PROCESSION OF THE GODDESS ISIS, POMPEII

A woman, with her child on her back, pays her husband respect by clapping her hands for him. The man has a spear in his hand. They are wearing traditional clothing. Residents of the Loango-Angola coast Loangers , print maker: Ludwig Gottlieb Portman, (mentioned on object), intermediary draughtsman: Jacques Kuyper, (mentioned on object), Amsterdam, 1806, paper, etching, h 249 mm × w 156 mm

MARRIAGE PROCESSION IN MANILLA

America. Florida. 16th century. Ritual dedicated to the sun god. Sacrifice deer skin. Engraving, 1850. Color.

Costumes of India, 1858. Dancing girls in sari with a type of sitar, Brahmin man in dhoti with wife in sari and nosering, Nawab in turban smoking a hookah pipe, carried in a palanquin with a servant holding a parasol. Palace or mosque domes in the background. Bayaderes, Brame et sa femme, Nabab se promenant en palanquin. Handcoloured and sepia-tinted lithograph by Jean-Adolphe Bocquin from Elisabeth Muller (pseudonym of Leonie Bedelet)s Le Monde en Estampes, The World in Prints, Amadee Bedelet, Paris, 1858.

Procession with seated figure carried on a stretcher, with snakes, Calcutta, West Bengal. Coloured etching by François Balthazar Solvyns, 1799.

Hindu devotees firewalking in the Nepu Tirunal or Thimithi festival in honour of the goddess Draupadi. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Andrea Bernieri from Giulio Ferrario's Ancient and Modern Costumes of all the Peoples of the World, Florence, Italy, 1844.

Natives of the Magdalena, Colombia. Old 19th century engraved illustration. Travel to New Granada by Charles Saffray from El Mundo en La Mano 1879

Various nobles, plate 20; Procession of Charles V with the Pope in Bologna after his coronation to Emperor, 1530. Various nobles, plate 20. Procession of Charles V with the Pope Clemens VII in Bologna after his coronation to Emperor, February 24, 1530.

French sailors feed bound black slaves to bloodhounds in San Domingo, 1805, Historical, digitally restored reproduction from 19th century original.

A Shaman of Lapland lying on the ground with a magical drum on his back, in a divinatory trance, about to foretell the future. Date: 1737

Engraving depicting Dayak females performing daily tasks. A Dayak is a member of a group of indigenous peoples inhabiting parts of Borneo. Dated 19th Century

c.1826, Lithograph, The Children of Kalaimoku performing hula.

Meskwaki men performing the Dance to the Medicine of the Brave. Sac warriors dancing with scalps of their enemy in front of the teepee of a fallen warrior's widow. Handcoloured lithograph from George Catlin's Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians, London, 1841.

Bedouins, Shepherds from Palmyra, Syria, Historical, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century original, Record date not stated, Asia

Illustration depicting the funeral of an Ashanti Chief, of the Ashanti Empire. Dated 19th Century

Philippine Islands. Governor General's expedition led by Fernando Primo de Rivera (1831-1921) to Northern Luzon. Bucay. Mass celebrated before the recently subdued tribes, neighboring the country of the Igorots. Engraving by Tomas Carlos Capuz (1834-1899). La Ilustracion Espaola y Americana, 1881.

Widows of Florida who having lost their husbands in the wars beg the King for his assistance; in the background, hermaphrodites attend to the sick and bury the dead Date: 1564

Fictional depiction of Queen Purea (Oberea) offering a plantain leaf in surrender to sailors of the Dolphin, 1767. (Captain Samuel Wallis was too ill with scurvy to leave the ship so Tobias Furneaux claimed the island on his behalf.) Handcoloured copperplate engraved by Sasso from Giulio Ferrario's Ancient and Modern Costumes of all the Peoples of the World, Florence, Italy, 1844.

French sailors feeding bound black slaves to bloodhounds in San Domingo, 1805, Historical, digitally restored reproduction from a 19th century original

THE SLAVE TRADE ON THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA

Traditional dance of the natives of Reunion island. Western Indian Ocean, drawing by Mettais. Journey to Reunion Island, 1861 by Louis Laurent Simonin (1830-1886) Le Tour du Monde 1862

British officials preside overthe Consular Court at Lokoja,in present-day Nigeria. Date: circa 1870

Using residents from Guinea. Leaf with four performances of using residents from Guinea. Above: A woman explains an oath by kissing the foot of the man. Women who are accused of adultery must be able to drink from a sacred stone with feathers. Below: prisoners are being beheaded and stripped of their limbs. Under the performances a caption in French.

HINDOO JUGGLERS, INDIA

Costumes of religious elite of Ouidah, Benin, and an idol of black clay with a crown of lizards, snakes and feathers seated on a pedestal. Handcoloured copperplate engraving by Antonio Sasso from Giulio Ferrario's Ancient and Modern Costumes of all the Peoples of the World, Florence, Italy, 1843.

Amotifou, the King of Assinie, Ivory Coast, Africa. Old 19th century engraved illustration from La Nature 1885

Peru, 1869

James Cook (1728-79) English navigator, explorer, and hydrographer receiving ritual tribute from Sandwich Islanders, 1779, during his third Pacific voyage. Engraving

Hand-painting cotton cloth in India, Hand-coloured engraving published Rudolph Ackermann, London, 1822

Native african witchdoctor smells out the wizard who is working evil magic on his client Date: 1868

Nuts or Indian Jugglers, Sir Charles D'Oyly, 1781-1845, British, active in India, Printed by The Behar Amateur Lithographic Press, 1781-1845, British, active in India, undated, Chromolithograph on medium, slightly textured, cream wove paper mounted on moderately thick, slightly textured, beige wove paper, Mount: 9 5/8 x 6 9/16 inches (24.5 x 16.6 cm), Sheet: 6 13/16 x 5 5/16 inches (17.3 x 13.5 cm), and Image: 6 7/16 x 5 5/16 inches (16.4 x 13.5 cm), acrobats, balancing, bass drums, children, entertainment, genre subject, grass, hut, Indian, men, natives, pond, sticks, trees, women, India

Warriors of the Khonds, are an ethnic indigenous tribal people of India, reproduction of an image, woodcut from the year 1881, digitally restored, Historical, Warriors of the Khonds, are an ethnic indigenous tribal people of India, reproduction of an image, woodcut from the year 1881, digitally improved, historical

Vasco da Gama delivers the letter of King Manuel of Portugal to the Samorim of Calicut

Indian Vaisha merchants. ;French; lithograph; India; By Marlet 1828. Vaisha are one of the four Varna's of the Hindu social order. Hindu religious texts assigned Vaisha to traditional roles in agriculture and cattle-rearing but over time they came to be landowners, traders and money-lenders.

Clothing, Fashion in Africa, East Africa, from left, an ugly Somali warrior in marching gear, a Somali warrior and a young cotton throwing Somali warrior, an Abyssinian warrior in brocade shirt and a Somali Bedouin woman and a Nubian warrior, digitally restored reproduction of a 19th century original

Indian penitents of Parinari. Peru, South America. Amazon and mountain ranges by Charles Wiener Mahler, 1879-1882. Old 19th century engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1906

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.

Hottentot Man and Woman from Southern Africa, north of the Cape of Good Hope. Nowadays, these people are named the Khoikhoi (or Khoi), a historical division of the Khoisan ethnic group, the native people of southwestern Africa, closely related to the San Bushmen. A book of national types and costumes from the early 19th century. Date: 1818

Muslim fakir or faqir holy men: naga with stick, paramahamsa sitting under a tree, painted sannyasi, naked avadhuta, robed Baisnab Vaisnava and fakir at prayer. After illustrations by Francois Solvyns. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Andrea Bernieri from Giulio Ferrario's Ancient and Modern Costumes of all the Peoples of the World, Florence, Italy, 1844.

Africa, War dance of the Matabele tribe, AmaNdebele, Ndebele, Zimbabwe, in Southeast Africa, 1880, Historical, digital reproduction of an original 19th-century model, Africa

Gate of a village of Laotian savages on the banks of the Banghiang River, Laos. Southeast Asia. Laos and the wild populations of Indochina 1877 by Doctor Jules Harmand (1845 - 1921) Old 19th century engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1880

The Cocopah, or Cocopa, are Native Americans who live in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico, and in Arizona in the United States. In: 'United States and Mexican Boundary Survey. Report of William H. Emory ' Washington. 1857

Journey to the sources of the Nile. He manages to save her from the hands of the bloodthirsty king, vintage engraving. Journey to the sources of the Nile. He manages to save her from the hands of the bloodthirsty king. vintage engraved illustration. Journal des Voyage, Travel Journal, 1880-81. Copyright: xZoonar.com/PatrickxGuenettex 10657140

America. Brazil. Members of the Puri tribe, Central Brazil, c.1840. They are extinct. Engraving.

Beginning of Barbaric Religion - The Tam-Tam

The Blessing, European settlers blessing the native population in 1880, Paraguay, digitally restored reproduction of a 19th century original, exact da...

Human sacrifice for the tribute feast, Dahomey, Central Africa, Old 19th century engraved illustration, Le Tour du Monde 1863

An Indian widow being led to suttee. Coloured etching, 1811.

Journey in Abyssinia. 19th century print engraved by C.Laplante from an illustration by Emile Bayard.

of 2