Rachel Cade was a popular fiction book written by Charles Mercer in 1956 about a woman who travels to Africa as a medical missionary. Set in the Belgian Congo in the late 1930’s Rachel finds love and adventure in a foreign land plagued by death and disease. Circumstances lead her to make a life-altering decision regarding the affections of two men that ultimately ties her to Africa forever. I won’t spoil the ending if you want to read it:)
Selling over 3 million copies in the mid-1950’s it was translated in 14 languages and in 1961 it was made into a movie called The Sins of Rachel Cade starring Angie Dickinson and Roger Moore.
This is a youtube clip from the movie.
Imagining Rachel’s African world in the 1930’s I picked some vintage items from Etsy that she might have encountered in both her personal life and her professional life while living abroad.
In the Vintage Kitchen: Where History Comes To Eat 