The Creation of the Congo Museum - Tervuren

Colonial mission is staged as heroic adventure
with Belgium playing the role of savior and civilizer of Congo, 1897.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa — a museum with a worldwide reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology — was a product of the 1897 Colonial Exhibition in Tervuren. There, the 'Palais des Colonies' was purpose-built for the occasion to showcase and promote commercial and public interest for King Leopold II's Congo Free State. Following its great success, as well as arousing wide scientific interest, the temporary exhibition was transformed into a permanent cultural and scientific institution, ‘Musée du Congo’, which opened to the public in 1898.

To accommodate the museum's rapidly growing collection a new neoclassical palace-style building was designed by French architect Charles Girauld. Its construction began in 1906 and was inaugurated as the new ‘Musée du Congo Belge’ in 1910 by King Albert I, renamed ‘Musée Royal du Congo Belge’ in 1952, and finally, when Congo gained Independence in 1960 it became ‘Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale’.

Musée du Congo in pictures

Palais des Colonies became Musée du Congo, and a permanent exhibition was installed in 1898.

The building was designed by the Belgian architect Albert-Philippe Aldophe and the classical gardens by French landscape architect Elie Lainé.

Architects associated with the Art Nouveau movement contributed to the interior design of the Palais des Colonies, such as Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, and Georges Hobé.

The ‘ethnographic’ sections were grouped in six compartments, separated by Art Nouveau partitions designed by Hankar, incorporating sixteen friezes decorated with paintings of ‘indigenous scenes’ by Adolphe Crespin and Edouard Duyck. The exhibits included eight groups of life-size figures representing Congolese ethnic groups by Isidore De Rudder, Julien Dillens, and Charles Samuel. Consisting of twenty-one polychrome sculptures adorned with authentic items of dress and accessories to enhance their realism.

Musée du Congo : Ethnographic room, 1898.

Musée du Congo : Natural History collection, 1898.

Musée du Congo : Natural History collection, 1898.

Musée du Congo : Fluid-preserved specimens of reptiles and fish, before 1910.

Musée du Congo : Ethnographic room, 1898.

Musée du Congo : Vuakusu-Batetela defending a woman against an Arab by Charles Samuel, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Native carriers by Julien Dillens, 1897.

Musée du Congo : A Teke chief of the Cristal Mountains by Julien Dillens, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Bangala fishermen by Isidore De Rudder, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Sango dancers by Julien Dillens, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Azande musicians by Charles Samuel, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Mayombe family scene by Isidore De Rudder, 1897.

Musée du Congo : Zappo zap blacksmiths by Isidore De Rudder, 1897.

Five interior scenes by Alexandre (Albert-Edouard Drains)
@ wellcome images uk

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Colonial Guide 1897

The Official Guide of the 1897 Colonial Exposition held in Tervuren : Guide de la section de l'Etat indépendant du Congo à l'Exposition de Bruxelles - Tervueren en 1897 - Theodore Masui.

References
• Theodore Masui, Guide de la section de l'Etat indépendant du Congo à l'Exposition de Bruxelles - Tervueren en 1897, Bruxelles : Impr. Veuve Monnom, 1897.
• Maarten Couttenier, Congo tentoongesteld: een geschiedenis van de Belgische antropologie en het museum van Tervuren (1882-1925), Leuven : Acco/KMMA, 2005.