The colony · 1787–1895
Towns,streetsandbuildings
Where people lived: streets, markets, houses, churches and mosques, and the villages upcountry.
Many were made by colonial officials, missionaries and foreign visitors. Titles and descriptions come from the collections that hold them and can carry the attitudes and language of their time. We show them as historical records, not as endorsements. Dates, eras and categories were assigned automatically from those records and some will be wrong. If you or your family appear in a picture, you hold rights to one, a detail is wrong, or you think a picture should not be here, press “Report this picture” under it: your note reaches our editors with the picture attached, and they can take it down straight away. You can also write to hello@dt-ets.com.
A view of Freetown 1803
One of the earliest pictures of the settlement, from Thomas Winterbottom's account of the colony.
Thomas Masterman Winterbottom · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Regent's Town c. 1820
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Free Town, Sierra Leone 1850
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Freetown from the water c. 1856
John Leighton Wilson or an uncredited artist employed or licensed by him · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Pademba Road 1856
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Freetown from the hills c. 1892
Robert Brown · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Freetown from the Tower Hill barracks c. 1870
An albumen print by the photographer J. P. Decker.
John Parkes Decker · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
HOLMAN(1840) p008 JAMES HOLMAN 1840
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HOLMAN(1840) Travels 1840
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Freetown in 1850 1850
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POOL(1850) Life, Scenery, and Customs in Sierra Leone and the Gambia (V.1) 1850
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POOL(1850) Life, Scenery, and Customs in Sierra Leone and the Gambia (V.2) 1850
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James Maurice Primrose - Freetown, Sierra Leone, November 1851 3380795874 1851
James Maurice Primrose · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Sketches in sierra leone 1856
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Sketches in sierra leone2 1856
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Colonial Secretary & Treasurer's offices from a North Eastern angle. George Street, by J.P. Decker c.1870
John Parkes Decker · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
The Graphic 1883, p. 52 1883
Unknown author Unknown author , images signed · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
John Parkes Decker - Studio portrait of African man and child before 1890
John Parkes Decker · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · Source ↗ · Report this picture
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Two lines of men wearing loincloths are pulling the carriage 1830
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