Souvenir de mon voyage au Congo-Belge.

328 orig. b/w photos, all around 8,3 x 13,9 cm, ms. legends.

Contemp. obl. 4to album covered with tiger patterned cloth.

Personal album of the Belgian engineer and entrepreneur Jean Jadot (1862-1932). In 1906 Jadot was appointed director in charge of industry development at the Société Générale de Belgique. Under his direction the Société Générale participated in setting up three mining-related companies in the Congo Free State: the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (UMHK), the Société Internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo (Forminière) and the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga (BCK). These three companies would determine most of the Congolese economy. Jean Jadot had the necessary infrastructure built in the cities, such as schools, hospitals, roads and railways, so that in 1911 the production of copper could start in Elisabethstad. By focusing on industrial concentration and modernization, the Société Générale directed by Jadot managed to control 70 to 80% of the Congolese economy and had a monopoly on copper production. In 1928 the important railway between Katanga and the Atlantic coast was realized. He was personally present at the inauguration of the railway by King Albert I. The album shows us the journey with the SS Armadale Castle to the Belgian Congo, visits to several mining companies, factories, infrastructures and constructions, group pictures with Jadot and his fellow entrepreneurs, the arrival and visit of Albert I and Elisabeth, festivities on the occasion of the visit of the king and queen, several train stations, mission stations, a hospital, etc. Including 9 panoramic photos (composed by several separate photos put together in a leporello) at the end. This album is a great testimony of the economic history of Belgian Congo.