[Liberia, West Africa: A village chapel]

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A small wooden chapel stands at the center of this 1893 photograph of a village in Liberia, a place that drew American attention for its founding by freed African Americans and the Black settlers who called themselves Americo-Liberians. Liberia had declared independence in 1847 under the American Colonization Society's sponsorship, and by the 1890s Christian missions were a visible part of community life along the coast and in the interior. The image is a useful record of how mission architecture and local building traditions met in the period. Churches like this one often served as schools and meeting places as well as places of worship.

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