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From the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century, religious missions of Dominicans, Salesians, Carmelites, and Josephites were mobilized in the Ecuadorian Amazon as a "pacifying and evangelizing" interference among the Quichua, Napoquichua, Canelo-Quichua, Shuar, Achuar and Cofan. There is little photographic documentation from that time. For this reason, this collection of 76 original plates of photographic negatives and 192 period copies, corresponding to the Salesian missions active between 1890 and 1930, is exceptional. It depicts their work among the Amazonian groups most resistant to colonization such as the Shua-Achuar and the Shuar.

In this context, the main function of photography was to idealize the role of missionaries as agents of civilization, and at the same time to document the process of integration of the "savages" into Western civilization, by altering the cultural patterns of the indigenous groups. Given the specificity, originality and singularity of this collection—even in the field of Amazonian countries—as well as its interpretative potential of a significant chapter of modern world history, and in the context of its contribution to the construction of the identity and rights of indigenous nations, the great relevance of this visual heritage for the Memory of the World becomes evident. The negatives are extremely fragile glass plates, in 15 x 10 and 12 x 8.9 formats, and the 192 copies are on fibre paper (gelatine and silver bromide), a common technique used in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

This collection was inscribed on the Memory of the World International Register and on the Regional Register for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2015.