This collection includes three postcards that depict stereographic images created by Robert Visser of villages, peoples, and a "fetish" figure in Congo (Democratic Republic).

The photographs document African businesses, cities, industry, landscapes, peoples and resources. The collection documents various locations within Kenya, Tanzania, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa. Peoples represented include Kikuyu, Maasai, Bangi, Chagga, Ndombe, Poto, Bangala, Zulu, and Kongo peoples. There are many images of agriculture, hunting, making pottery, mining diamonds and gold, church services at a Catholic mission, a gathering of chiefs at a court, a lion-killing ceremony, and war dances. Businesses and industries shown include coffee plantations; the DeBeers Diamond Mine; a diamond mine compound and crushing mill; fishing boats; a hemp plantation; ivory trade; a market; and the stock market.

Video recorded interviews conducted by Dr. Simon Ottenberg with Nigeria artists in Nigeria and in the United States of America, 1994-1996.

Photographs taken by Marli Shamir in Mali, in 1971. The majority of the images show architecture in Djenne, Mali. Other images depict architecture of the Dogon in Timbuktu, Gao and San. Photographs from this collection were featured by Labelle Prussin's thesis entitled, "The Architecture of Djenne; African Synthesis and Transformation," (Yale University, 1974) and in her book entitled, "Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa," (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986). The images have also been displayed in an exhibition entitled, "Marli Shamir Photographs from the Sahel," held in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, in 1976.

Photographs taken by Simon Ottenberg in Southeastern Nigeria within the Afikpo Village Group, at the time a group of 22 Eastern Igbo villages (sometimes considered part of the Cross River Igbo grouping) in southeastern Nigeria, while on a pre-doctoral Social Science Research Grant from December of 1951 through March of 1953 and during field research from September of 1959 to December of 1960. Also included are photographs taken from June of 1960 to December of 1960 of Abakaliki, a town and the administrative center of the northestern Igbo people, north of Afikpo. According to Dr. Ottenberg in his publication about masked Afikpo rituals, "The Afikpo belong to an Igbo subgroup called Ada or Edda (Forde and Jones 1950, pp. 51-56), which includes the Okpaha, Edda, Amaseri, and Unwana village-groups, all of which border on the Afikpo, and the Nkporo and Adaeze, both short distances away" (Masked Rituals of Afikpo, 1975, p. 3).

Photographs of art objects and of object installations taken during the mid-1970s by Gilbert Schneider.

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."

Photographs taken by John Dean while traveling in the Sudan in 1961 and in Liberia and Sierre Leone in 1962.

Photographs taken by John E. Lomas in the Sudan from 1972 through 1973. The images document the art and culture of village peoples of the Sudan to include the Dinka, Murle and Shilluk. Most are portraits showing body painting and scarification. Activities portrayed include buying and selling in markets, domestic chores, hunting and metal smithing. There are also images of modern and traditional architecture.