Portrait of a Woman along the Niger River

A black-and-white photograph from between 1886 and 1895 depicting a seated woman posing for the camera. She is unclothed from the waist up, revealing a vertical line of abdominal cicatrization along the midline of her torso and pale markings on her cheeks. She wears thick ivory bangles on both wrists, a thin necklace, and a plaid cloth wrapped around her waist. A similar checkered textile serves as a backdrop behind her. The subject is seated on an earthen surface with dense tropical vegetation and a blurred structure in the background. The image was captured by William Henry Crosse during his tenure as Principal Medical Officer for the Royal Niger Company.