Maps of the Congo

Summary

This article describes five newly acquired folios of the bilingual French-Flemish Atlas Général Du Congo Et Du Ruanda-Urundi (Algemene Atlas Van Congo En Van Ruanda-Urundi), published by the Institut Royal Colonial Belge in Brussels in 1948, now held in the Map Division of the Library of Congress. The atlas, when complete, will comprise seven sections—History, Geodesy, Physical World, Biogeography, Anthropology and Social Sciences, Politics and Government, and Economics—each subdivided into folios. The acquired folios include an introductory volume featuring a 1:3,000,000 map and a 23-page gazetteer, as well as sections on biogeography, history, and political administration, covering vegetation zones, national parks and forest reserves, explorer routes, and administrative subdivisions since 1888. The article notes that additional folios on ethnology, language, population density, transportation, hydrography, boundaries, telecommunications, and economy are in preparation, and recommends René de Rouck's 1947 atlas as a supplementary resource in the reading room.