CONGO (DRC), BELGIAN CONGO, 1935 "Missions in the Congo. Bikoro, Coquilhatville, Nsona-Mbata". A set of thirteen postcards and three original photographs mounted on a 49 x 64 cm panel, with the title and captions written in white gouache. Under glass, in a waxed wooden frame. A panorama of the work of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and the missionary congregations active in Équateur and Bas-Congo: nuns and missionaries in groups, catechumens and pupils, mission buildings and chapels, a nativity scene, a sewing workshop with Singer sewing machines, the Coquilhatville Hospital for Black People, and the ‘St Jean-Baptiste’ mission boat. Postcards published by Nels (Ern. Thill, Brussels), from the series dedicated to the missions. The three localities brought together here cover two distinct regions of the Belgian Congo. Nsona-Mbata, now Sona-Bata, in Lower Congo, where the Daughters of Charity ran an orphanage and a school alongside the Scheutists and later the Redemptorists. Coquilhatville, now Mbandaka, the capital of Équateur, and headquarters of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. Bikoro, on Lake Tumba, served by the Lazarists, established as an autonomous mission in 1931. One of the photographs bears the following caption written in ink in the margin: ‘Ordination of Mr Van Ghestel, 1935’. Unframed. 48 x 63.5 cm.