Ivan Karp (1943-2011) was a curator of African Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) from 1984 to 1993. He was also a professor at Emory University from 1993 to 2011. He conducted fieldwork among the Iteso (Teso) of Kenya and made significant contributions to the areas of African systems of thought, social theory, museum studies, and public scholarship. His collection contains his research on the Iteso of Kenya; his work at Emory University and the Smithsonian Institution; his reviews of manuscripts and books; recommendations that he wrote for his colleagues and students; his published articles and papers presented at conferences; and his project files on various topics including museum studies, African philosophy, public scholarship, agency and personhood, and the history of social anthropology.

Photographs taken during a research trip to Mali in 1989 to study the art and architecture of the Dogon and Bamana peoples. Accompanying Dr. Ravenhill was Stanley Staniski from Media Resources. Their work resulted in the video production entitled, Togu na and Cheko: Change and Continuity in the Art of Mali, for the National Museum of African Art.

Ethel M. Albert was an ethnologist whose research focused on communication and speech, and values and ethics. She pursued these themes cross-culturally across a wide spectrum of social classes, ethnic groups and locations. She received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin in 1949 and taught a several institutions of higher learning before becoming a faculty member of Northwestern University in 1966. The Ethel Mary Albert papers consist of writings, photographs and sound recordings produced during the course of Albert's ethnological studies as Ford Fellow in Burundi in the late 1950s; field research among the Navaho; and materials related to a later cross cultural study of fatalism.

These papers of Philip L. Ravenhill primarily document the period during which he was a graduate student at the New School for Social Research and contain his field research on the Wan and neighboring groups in the Ivory Coast. There are also some some research files of Judith Timyan, whom Ravenhill was married to at the time.

This record unit documents the administration of the Exhibits Design and Production Laboratory for approximately first ten years of operation, and describes the mission, philosophy, planning, and construction of the facility. The records contain planning materials for many of the museum's early exhibitions, which reflect the involvement of ...

The photographs document Gulla Kell Pfeffer's trip, ca. 1927, from Victoria (Cameroon) to Kano (Nigeria). She had spent time with the Zumperi, continued on through Takum and Wukari following the old trade road connecting the Grassfields with this region. From there she traveled to Pankshin, Jos, Zaria, before reaching Kano. The pictures have been captioned by Kell Pfeffer.

The interviews of AfriCOBRA founders measure 0.607 gigabytes and date from 2010. This collection includes digital transcripts and audio files of interviews with AfriCOBRA founders Michael Harris, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Napoleon Jones-Henderson, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Carolyn Lawrence, Howard Mallory, and Robert Sengstacke.

The collection includes 1,469 color slides (35mm) which were taken in Nigeria from circa 1964-1994, and focus on ancestral altars; artists; art objects in museums, including bronze plaques and carved ivory tusks; ceremonies and festivals, including the Igue and Ewere Festivals, and the Emobo, Otue, Olokun, title-taking, and Blackmun's initation ceremonies; and people, including Oba Erediauwa and chiefs Eribo, Ero, Esogban, Ezomo, Ohanmu and Osaigeide; and street and landscape scenes in Benin City, Ife, Lagos, Ishiago, and Mbarri, Owerri, Owo, among other locations in Nigeria.

The Smithsonian Institution Archives (SIA) began its Oral History Program in 1973. The purpose of the program is to supplement the written documentation of the Archives' record and manuscript collections with an Oral History Collection, focusing on the history of the Institution, research by its scholars, and contributions of its staff. Progra...

The papers of African American painter, printmaker, and educator Marvin Harden measure 2.2 linear feet and date from circa 1936 to 2005. Found within the papers are biographical materials, correspondence, teaching files, exhibition files, printed material, artwork, and photographs. Correspondents include Joyce Tremain, Judy Chicago, Marion Lerner Levine, Jud Fine, Houston Conwill, Sandy Ballatore-Nelson, Nancy Lee Riegelmen, Eugene Anderson, Connor Everts, Pleter Plagens, Jan Stussy, Caroll Toon, William Wilson, and others. Artwork includes a book of etchings Natural Selections (1991).