Portrait photographs taken by Wolkmar Wentzel in Angola, circa 1965.

Photographs of Ovonramwen, the King of Benin, on his way into exile in 1897, and of other kings in the Niger Delta kingdoms. Portraits included are of Sir Claude Maxwell and Lady Macdonald and Roger Casement, Prince Achibong III of Old Calabar; New Calabar Chief and Wives; Lady Egba and Chief Pagby and Attendants; Ladies of Rank in Old Calabar; Eyo Honesty VIII; Chief Long John of Bonny after Death and chiefs of Opobo. Views of landscape included are of Calabar and Madeira.

Photographs of Madagascar in the early French colonial period and Merina Kingdom in Central Madagascar, ca. 1887-1900. Portrait images include Queen Ranavalona III (exiled to Algiers in 1897), her husband, the Prime Minister, and other royals. There are images are of Malagasy women from other parts of the island.

Photographs from the Kingdoms of the Interlacustrine area in East Africa. Portraits are of King Daudi, Four Kings and their Prime Ministers, Sir Apolo Kagwa, Chief Bongo and a Busoga Chief. Images also show relics in a Tutsi tomb.

Photographs taken by Dimitri Kyriazis while at the Institute for Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, from ca. 1950 through the end of the reign of Emperor Halie Selassie I in 1974.

Photographs taken by Herbert M. Cole of people and architecture in Kenya, 1973. Peoples included are the Samburu, Turkana and Pokot.

Portrait photographs taken in a photographic studio in Asmara, Ethiopia, during the 1980s.

Portrait images and domestic scenes from Mauritania of Halpoular, Moor and Wolof peoples, mostly women; some children and men. All the images are captioned by the photographer and include the subjects names as well as the region, date and activity. The more noteworthy images include Moor women preparing wool for weaving (nos. 37, 38, 39), girls playing a game of "golorgal" with playing board clearly visible (no. 34), and a wooden tablet with verses from the Koran (no. 19). As a documentary photographer, Ms. Goodsmith focuses predominantly on the lives of women and children in developing countries. Her images—chiefly from North and West Africa, Egypt and India—are on file with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), The Image Works, and Johns Hopkins Photoshare, and her portraits from a series done in Kashmir are in the photographic collection of the Brooklyn Museum. All of the images of this photographic collection are originals. Ms. Goodsmith works chiefly with Communication for Change, a New York-based nonprofit organization that has developed participatory video projects in collaboration with community groups.

The collection consists of approximately 1,950 glass plate and large format film negatives,100 hand-tinted and black-and-white prints and four photographic albums containing prints of various sizes, taken by Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge, the royal photographer to the Oba of Benin, Akenzua II (1933-1978). These images span six decades (1926 - 1989) and represent a dynamic, continuous record of the Benin Royal Court in Nigeria. Alonge documented the pageantry, ritual and regalia of the Obas, their wives and retainers for over a half-century, including the coronation of the King and the Iyoba, or queen mother. The collection also documents historic visits to Benin by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (1956), Princess Alexandra (1960), foreign dignitaries, traditional rulers, political leaders and celebrities. The collection preserves an important historical record of Benin art and culture during the periods of British colonial rule and Nigerian independence in the 20th century. The rarity and historical value of the collection are enhanced by Alonge's privileged access to the Palace as a chief in the Iwebo Palace Society, a position which presents a unique insider's view of Benin royalty. The quality of the collection is testament to Alonge's technological skills in photography and his professionalism in keeping the collection ordered and well-preserved despite the heat, humidity and tropical climate of Nigeria.

Vintage photographs, including albumen and silver gelatin photographic prints, collected by the staff of the National Museum of African Art from its inception in 1979.