The collection consists of 165 pasteboards with albumen prints mounted individually or forming groups of two and three, stored in four portfolios and a folder with captions and references in additional sheets of paper. It was created by Prince Roland Bonaparte (1858-1924) and it refers mainly to different ethnic groups such as “Hindous”, “Kalmouks”, “Atchinois”, “Dahoméens”, “Hottentots”, “Bushmen”, “Néo Calédoniens”, “Australiens” and “Peaux Rouges”.
There are sitting full-face and profile portraits; full-face and profile torso portraits; frontal, profile and back full-length portraits; group photographs and views of typical dwellings. Most of it was taken at the 1883 Colonial Exposition in Amsterdam, at the Paris World's Fair of 1889, and temporary exhibitions held in Paris, Berlin and London during 1883 and 1884.
