Maps of the Congo

Summary

This note describes the structure and content of five folios from the *Atlas Général Du Congo Et Du Ruanda-Urundi*, a French–Flemish cartographic work published by the Institut Royal Colonial Belge, held in the Map Division’s African collections. The atlas is planned to comprise seven thematic sections—History, Geodesy, the Physical World, Biogeography, Anthropology and the Social Sciences, Politics and Government, and Economics—each subdivided into individual folios that integrate maps, graphs, and explanatory texts. The folios already available include an introductory volume, which provides a 1:3,000,000 overview map of administrative boundaries, settlements, hydrography, and infrastructure alongside a 23-page gazetteer, and four thematic folios from the Biogeography, History, and Politics sections. These contain detailed maps of vegetation zones, protected areas, explorer routes, and the evolution of administrative divisions since 1888, accompanied by subject-specific expository text. The present holdings illustrate the atlas’s layered organization and its dual emphasis on visual representation and contextual documentation. Additional folios are in preparation, addressing ethnology, linguistics, population density, transport, hydrography, boundaries, telecommunications, and the economy, with roughly one hundred further installments projected. Researchers seeking information on topics not yet covered may consult René de Rouck’s *Atlas Géographique Et Historique Du Congo Belge*. This notification highlights the value of the existing volumes for historical and geographical research on Central Africa and signals the expanding scope of the atlas project.