Casimir Zagourski African postcards 1924-1941

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Casimir Zagourski African postcards 1924-1941

http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1573

The collection consists of approximately 250 postcards made from photographs taken by Casimir Zagourski in Africa between 1924 and 1941, which formed a part of his overall project, "L'Afrique Qui Disparait" (Disappearing Africa). The photos are set in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (formally known as Belgian Congo), Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Chad, Kenya, Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Congo Brazzaville. The postcards depict a variety of aspects of everyday life in these different settings, including housing styles and traditional grave sites of the Belgian Congo, Bakumu dancers, and Bongelima dignitaries. He also highlighted the beautification marks of the Gombe, the Bwaka, the Banza, and the Bapende of the Belgian Congo. Zagourski also focused on women at work, depicting them carrying goods home from market, collecting firewood, taking care of children, and preparing meals. Digital facsimiles of postcards in this collection, accompanied by more detailed descriptions, are available in the Manuscripts and Archives Digital Image Database (MADID) from the Manuscripts and Archives web site.

0.5 linear feet

fre,

eng,

Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6351463

Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives

Related Entities

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Zagourski, Casimir Ostoja, 1880-1941

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nw0103 (person)

Casimir Zagourski was born in Poland in 1880. After a military career in the Russian air force and the Polish army, he left Eastern Europe and moved to Africa in 1924. He settled in Leopoldville, which is now Kinshasa, Congo, where he began his career as a photographer. During the next seventeen years, until his death in 1941, Zagourski traveled around Central Africa photographing its people, places, and local traditions. At the same time, he established and maintained a store in Leopoldville to...