Physical Type Portraits of Igbo-speaking Communities

Image Portraits

A photographic album page showing a grid of eighteen monochrome physical type portraits of Igbo men.

Physical type photographs in albums from Northcote Thomas's anthropological surveys of Igbo-speaking communities in Nigeria.

A photograph of two album pages featuring eighteen monochrome and sepia-toned portrait prints of human males of various ages. These portraits, known as physical type photographs, are organized in two symmetrical 3x3 grids on a light-colored substrate. The subjects are captured in frontal, profile, and three-quarter views, focusing on the head and shoulders. Visual details include various hair patterns, shaved heads, facial hair, and visible scarification. Some subjects are bare-chested while others wear textured or patterned fabrics and neck adornments. These images were produced between 1909 and 1915 as part of Northcote Thomas's ethnographic surveys in West Africa to document the physiological characteristics of different ethno-linguistic groups. Copies of these albums are held at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the UK National Archives, and the National Museum, Lagos.

Community Notes

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 04, 2026

The Physical Types (Men) section in Volume 1 of the official photograph albums was created during Northcote Thomas's anthropological surveys of Igbo-speaking communities (1910-13) (Physical type photographs - [Re:]Entanglements). Thomas distinguished these formal face and profile shots, which he termed physical types proper, from other portraits he recommended, such as family groups and subjects in more characteristic poses.

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 04, 2026

The [Re:]Entanglements project discovered 16 additional albums of Thomas's photographs at the Nigerian National Museum in Lagos, which were presumably originally deposited at the Colonial Secretariat (N. W. Thomas Archives - [Re:]Entanglements).

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 04, 2026

Northcote Thomas utilized various equipment for his West African surveys, including a Goerz camera and a Hunter & Sands Tropical camera during his first tour of Edo-speaking areas (N. W. Thomas Archives - [Re:]Entanglements).

Onyeka Nwokike

Sep 04, 2026

Thomas's ethnographic records of the Igbo and Edo peoples include more than 2,000 objects housed at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge (Northcote W. Thomas and his Collection | Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) and 448 wax cylinder recordings held at the Pitt Rivers Museum (Reel 2 Real - Northcote Whitridge Thomas).