The Pères Blancs (White Fathers) Society Photographic Album documents the group's missions and the Africans living near them in the East African kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi (now the state of Rwanda-Burundi). Subjects include individual and group portraits of Africans, including members of the Tutsi royal family and the Tutsi elite, Christian families of Hutu origin, missionaries and Western visitors, and Twa people on an elephant hunt. There are also photos of landscapes, African villages and mission buildings, activities, including dancing, farming,

One cabinet card with an albumen photographic print by Cyril Punch of a Benin altar with two bronze heads supporting ivory tusks and framing a group of brass statues and bells, an inscription on the frame reading, "Juju altar, Benin City, May 1891.

This collection includes 329 black and white photographic prints, measuring 8 x 10 inches or smaller, that depict African art objects and were published in Warren M. Robbins' book, African Art in American Collections (New York, Washington, London: Praeger, 1966).

Photographs by Wyatt MacGaffey, a prominent anthropologist with a lifelong scholarly interest in the Congo, taken during a survey on Belgian colonial architecture for a research project in Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville) in 1980. His images of the often dilapidated buildings range from colonial mansions to views of African housing. Other photographs show small private homes and businesses as well as a mosque under construction by the Saudis and several churches. There are also many street scenes, images of the university and the Congo River. A series of five slides shows popular paintings (such as La Colonie Belge). The value of his images is enhanced by his notes, which record subjects and locations.

The collection contains 130 large format color transparencies, dating from 1968, of Ethiopian icons at the Institute of Ethiopian Studeis, Addis Ababa. The images were taken by Dr. Stanislaw Chojnacki and appear in his catalog publication Ethiopian Icons. The collection also includes 107 35mm color slides of the funeral of Emperor Haile Selassie I, taken by Dr. Chojnacki's colleague Dr. Paul Henze in 1975. At this time, the color slides are available for study purposes only.

Thirty-two color photographs of the South African Display on the mall in Washington, DC, during the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival, June-July, 1999.

This collection, which dates from 1949-1970, contains approximately 2513 color 35mm slides depicting the people, environment and cultures of more than 30 African countries. Images include landscapes, agriculture and marketplace scenes. Countries represented include Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Cote d'Ivoire and Zambia. Also included in this collection are 117 postcards from West and Central Africa and approximately 17 maps of and 10 guide books for East and West Africa. A small amount of miscellaneous ephemera rounds out the collection.

Photographs taken by Melville J. Herskovits during his trips with his wife, Frances Shapiro Herskovits, to Surinam (1928-29); Dahomey, now Republic of Benin (1931); Haiti (1934); and Brazil (1941-42). From 1928 to 1943 Melville Herskovits and his wife, Frances Herskovits (nee Shapiro) traveled together throughout West Africa and the Americas to collect evidence of the legacy of African culture. The contributions of Frances Herskovits to her husband's research were fully recognized in an exhibition held by the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, from April 2-August 9, 1998. Entitled, "Living Tradition in Africa & the America: The Legacy of Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits," the brochure noted, "On each trip, Frances was a full partner in the research...Until Melville's death in 1963, they worked together on the analysis of their data and the writing of books and articles; and after he died, she edited a collection of his papers."

The collection primarily includes photographs of Limba peoples taken by anthropologist Simon Ottenberg during field research in northern Sierra Leone within Bafodea Town, the capital of Wara Wara Bafodea Chiefdom, and Guinea, from October 1978 through July 1980. The collection also includes photographs taken while conducting field research at an Afikpo village-group, in southeastern Nigeria, from January 30, 1988 to February 5, 1988 and 1992.

Photographs taken by Christopher DeCorse during his travels in Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire.