Old photographs, stamps and film · 1787–1895

Thecolony

225 items

Many were made by colonial officials, missionaries and foreign visitors. Titles and descriptions come from the collections that hold them and can carry the attitudes and language of their time. We show them as historical records, not as endorsements. Dates, eras and categories were assigned automatically from those records and some will be wrong. If you or your family appear in a picture, you hold rights to one, a detail is wrong, or you think a picture should not be here, press “Report this picture” under it: your note reaches our editors with the picture attached, and they can take it down straight away. You can also write to hello@dt-ets.com.

№ 01

Before the written record

Stone tools from rock shelters, nomoli figures turned up in farms, iron smelters, and the ivory carvings Sapi artists made for Portuguese traders in the 1400s and 1500s.

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Horn (Probably Mende people) 19th century
Probably Mende people artist · Public domain (CC0) · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Ivory and Silver Pendant 19th century
Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Harp-lute with an antelope head, collected in the 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 02

Slavery and freedom

The slave trade on this coast and the people who came out of it: the captives of Bunce Island and the Amistad, the Black Poor, Nova Scotian and Maroon settlers, and the Liberated Africans freed from slave ships.

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Portrait of a Gentleman, Joshua Johnson paints Coker, 1805 1805
Joshua Johnson · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

The slave fort on Bunce Island, at the mouth of the Sierra Leone River in West Africa circa 1805
Joseph Corry · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Paul Cuffee 1812
Engraved for Abrm. L. Pennock by Mason & Maas., From a drawing by John Pole, M.D., of Bristol, Eng. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Paul Cuffee4 1812
Engraved for Abrm. L. Pennock by Mason & Maas., From a drawing by John Pole, M.D., of Bristol, Eng. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Bana 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Bar 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Boro 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Bungair 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Fargina 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Farquanar 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Fuli 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Grabo. The Armistad [sic] Negroes, Drawn from Life, by Wm. H. Townsend. 1839–40
Townsend, William H. (1822-1851) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 03

Words on paper

Books, letters and papers: the first gospels printed in Bullom and Temne, tales told by Temne elders and written down in 1861, letters in Arabic script, and the paperwork of ordinary lives.

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Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 2 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 3 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 4 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 5 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 6 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 7 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 8 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 9 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 10 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 11 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 12 (Temne) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Temne traditions of Bey Farma and Korombo, page 13 (English) 1861
An elder of Port Loko (told c. 1849); C. F. Schlenker (printed 1861) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 04

Towns, streets and buildings

Where people lived: streets, markets, houses, churches and mosques, and the villages upcountry.

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A view of Freetown 1803
Thomas Masterman Winterbottom · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Regent's Town c. 1820
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Free Town, Sierra Leone 1850
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Freetown from the water c. 1856
John Leighton Wilson or an uncredited artist employed or licensed by him · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Pademba Road 1856
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Freetown from the hills c. 1892
Robert Brown · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Freetown from the Tower Hill barracks c. 1870
John Parkes Decker · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

HOLMAN(1840) p008 JAMES HOLMAN 1840
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

HOLMAN(1840) Travels 1840
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Freetown in 1850 1850
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

POOL(1850) Life, Scenery, and Customs in Sierra Leone and the Gambia (V.1) 1850
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

POOL(1850) Life, Scenery, and Customs in Sierra Leone and the Gambia (V.2) 1850
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 05

Farming, food and trade

Rice farms, palm oil and kernels, fishing nets and traps, cooking, shops, mines and markets: the work that fed the country and paid its way.

Kent, Sierra Leone, from the bananas 1865
Auteur inconnu · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

The Net Mender (Garnbinderen) 1879
Christian Krohg · Public domain (CC0) · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Leather quiver with iron-tipped arrows, Mandingo, 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Leather quiver with a basketwork cap, Mandingo, 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 06

Cloth and craft

What hands made: country cloth spun and woven on the narrow loom, gara dyeing, baskets, pots, carving and smithing.

Cloth sample, collected before 1800 1796
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Interior Hanging (Mende, Vai, or Temne peoples) early–mid-19th century
Mende, Vai, or Temne artist · Public domain (CC0) · The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Mrs. Kate Roachof Sierra Leone. 1880–93
(artist not separately acknowledged) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

The "Senior Service" of Sierra Leone, 1885 1885
Colonial Records Office · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Cloth samples, from Afzelius's journey of the 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 07

Dress, hair and adornment

What people wore and how they wore it: gowns and wrappers, head-ties and hats, hair dressed for the occasion, beads and bangles.

Costumes of West Africa - a Kroo-Man 1820–30
T.W. Ramsay · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Costumes of West Africa - Ministrels 1820–30
T.W. Ramsay · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 08

Home, tools and play

The things of every day: spoons and bowls, mortars, knives and axes, bags and canes, toys and games.

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Ya Ma Cooba's town in White Man's Bay: round houses and fences, 1780s (engraving) 1787
John Matthews · Public domain · Internet Archive · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Three spoons from Afzelius's collection of the 1790s Collected 1792–96
Sandin, Tony · Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Spoon, collected before 1800 Probably collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Small bag of brown skin, collected in the 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Leather bag with nine straps, collected in the 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

Leather bag with tassels, Mandingo, 1790s Collected 1792–96
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture

№ 09

Masks, societies and faith

The Sande (Bondo) and Poro societies and their masquerades, nomoli and minsereh figures, and the churches and mosques. Pictures of society matters stay behind a notice, out of respect.

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