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IXVisual Archive

The Pictures They Filed Away

Photographs and documents from the long century of conquest. Each image is a deposition. Look at them in sequence and the argument makes itself.

Congolese children mutilated by the Force Publique in the Congo Free State, c. 1904
Congo Free State, c.1904 — children whose hands were severed by Force Publique soldiers under Leopold II's quota system.Source — Congo · 1904
Nsala of Wala beside the severed hand and foot of his five-year-old daughter Boali, Congo, 1904
Nsala of Wala looks at the severed hand and foot of his five-year-old daughter Boali, killed when the village failed to meet its rubber quota.Source — Congo · 1904
Belgian colonial punishment by chicotte — a hippopotamus-hide whip — in the Congo, c. 1900
Punishment by the chicotte — a whip of hippopotamus hide — was standard Belgian discipline in the rubber-producing zones.Source — Congo · c.1900
Abolitionist diagram of the Liverpool slave ship Brookes, 1788, showing 482 enslaved Africans packed below deck
The Brookes diagram, 1788. Used by abolitionists to show how 482 human beings were packed into a single voyage.Source — Atlantic · 1788
Engraving of the Haitian Revolution in Saint-Domingue, 1791
Saint-Domingue in revolt. The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was the only successful slave uprising to found a nation; France punished it for the next 122 years.Source — Haiti · 1791
Portrait of the Spanish friar Bartolomé de las Casas, author of A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552)
Bartolomé de las Casas. His Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1552, remains one of the earliest published indictments of European cruelty in the Americas.Source — Americas · 1552
Painting of the Trail of Tears, the forced removal of Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations by the United States in the 1830s
The Trail of Tears. The forced removal of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations under U.S. federal law. Thousands died on the march.Source — USA · 1830s
Portrait of Truganini, Palawa woman of Tasmania, photographed in the 19th century
Truganini (c.1812–1876), often called — incorrectly — the 'last' Tasmanian Aboriginal. The genocide of her people was carried out within living memory of Victorian Britain.Source — Tasmania · 19th c.
Herero survivors of the 1904 German extermination order in present-day Namibia
Herero survivors of the German extermination order of 1904. The first concentration camps of the twentieth century were built here, in present-day Namibia.Source — Namibia · 1904
Herero prisoners in chains under German colonial rule, Namibia, 1907
Herero prisoners in chains. German colonial methods were studied closely by the next generation of European militarists.Source — Namibia · 1907
Famine victims on the streets of Calcutta during the 1943 Bengal famine under British administration
Calcutta, 1943. Three million Bengalis died while grain continued to be exported under British wartime policy.Source — India · 1943
Imperial Federation Map of the World showing the extent of the British Empire in 1886
Imperial Federation Map of the World, 1886. The pink covers roughly a quarter of the earth's land surface.Source — Britain · 1886
The volcanic Banda Islands in Indonesia, site of the 1621 Dutch East India Company massacre
The Banda Islands, Indonesia. In 1621 the Dutch East India Company massacred or enslaved nearly the entire population to monopolise the nutmeg trade.Source — Indonesia · 1621
Algiers city view during the French colonial occupation and the Algerian War of Independence
Algiers under French occupation. The war for Algerian independence (1954–1962) cost between 300,000 and 1.5 million Algerian lives.Source — Algeria · 20th c.
Photograph of Frantz Fanon, Martinican psychiatrist and decolonial theorist, author of The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon (1925–1961). Psychiatrist and theorist of decolonisation; author of The Wretched of the Earth.Source — Theory
Portrait of the Palestinian-American literary critic Edward Said, author of Orientalism (1978)
Edward Said (1935–2003). His Orientalism (1978) reshaped how the West's gaze on the East could be analysed and criticised.Source — Theory
Headquarters of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C.
The International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C. Its 'structural adjustment' programmes have repeatedly forced poorer countries to gut social spending.Source — Today
Skyline of Lagos, Nigeria — the largest city in Africa
Lagos, Nigeria — the largest city in Africa. Rarely the image Western media reaches for when illustrating the continent.Source — Today
India's Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, which reached Mars orbit in 2014 on its first attempt
India's Mars Orbiter Mission, 2014. India reached Mars on its first attempt, for less than the budget of a Hollywood film.Source — Today
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, first Black U.S. presidential family, 2012
The Obamas, 2012. The first Black U.S. presidency triggered the largest organised resurgence of open white-nationalist politics in a generation.Source — USA · 2012
Stack of school history textbooks from former European colonial powers
School textbooks. In most former colonial powers, the empire is taught — when it is taught at all — as a story of administration, ports, and railways.Source — Education

Last updated 23 June 2026Submit a correctionMethodology

References

Sources & Further Reading

  1. [1]Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division — loc.gov/pictures.
  2. [2]Wikimedia Commons — public-domain colonial and civil-rights era photography.
  3. [3]National Archives (UK) and US National Archives and Records Administration.
  4. [4]Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu.

All works cited in good faith for documentary, educational and critical use. Errors and omissions: contact the archive.