Photographs taken by Roy Sieber. Images of African textile and the dyeing and weaving processes. Objects depicted include Asante Kente cloth, Hausa embroidered pants, Jukun tie-dye waist cloth, a Kuba hat, Yoruba indigo dye and a Zulu cloak, as well as akwete cloth from Nigeria, an appliqué dress from Cameroon, an appliqué robe from Ghana, cloth from Dahomey (now Benin) and dye pots from Ede. People portrayed include a Dogon dancer, Kajiado warriors with spears and shields, a weaver making cloth, and women dyeing cloth with indigo.
Arrangement note:
Images indexed by negative number.
Biographical / Historical:
Early American historian of African art Roy Sieber (1923-2001) is considered the founder of the discipline of African art history in the United States. He graduated from the New School for Social Research in New York in 1949, earned his M.A. at the University of Iowa (1951) and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University (1951), where he taught art history from 1950 to 1962. He joined Indiana University as an associate professor in 1962, one of the original scholars in the University's nascent African Studies Program as the Rudy Professor of Fine Arts. Sieber worked as the Associate Director for Collections and Research at the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution) from 1983 to 1993, where he was responsible for evaluating collection research and developing acquisition standards. Sieber received the first Leadership Award from the Arts Council of the African Studies Association in 1986.
Througout his career Sieber produced significant publications and served as lecturer and visiting professor at several universities in Africa as well as the United States. He was a member of the American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council Joint Committee on Africa between 1963 and 1971 and later the African Studies Association and the primitive art advisory committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Bassa (Liberian and Sierra Leone people) Search this
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Photocopies
Place:
Mali
Africa
Cameroon
Nigeria
Date:
circa 1983
Summary:
This collection is comprised of photographs collected by William W. Brill to document his personal collection of African art objects, which primarily contains masks, sculpted figures, and tools.
Scope and Contents:
This collection is comprised of photographs collected by William W. Brill to document his personal collection of African art objects, which primarily contains masks, sculpted figures, and tools. Masks documented are from the following peoples: Hemba, Lulua, Makonde, and Bbagani. Sculptural figures shown were created by the following groups: Bassa, Dogon, Kulango, Kuyu, Loma, Luba, Lunda, Punu, and Tabwa. Other objecs shown include an Asante comb, Asante royal staff, Baule animal head, Bete heddle pulley, Chokwe comb, Ijo staff, Kuba headrest, Lele staff, Ndengese axe handle, Senufo ceremonial container, Senufo wine strainer, Yela staff, Yoruba house post, Zulu comb, and Zulu hunter's staff. There are also images of musical instruments including bells, flutes, and rhythm pounders from Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, and Zaire. Photographers represented include Tony Fitsch, Al Mozell and Bernard Pierre Wolff.
Biographical / Historical:
William W. Brill (1918-2003) received a B.A. from Yale University and was the president of the Mutual Real Estate Investment Trust in New York. He started collecting African art around 1960 and has donated several art objects to museums.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
For study purposes only. Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Photographs taken by Eliot Elisofon in Africa and in European and American museums and collections during his extensive travels from 1942 through 1972. African kingdoms and peoples represented include Afo, Anyi, Asante, Atie, Baga, Bamana, Baule, Bembe, Benin, Bobo, Boki, Bozo, Chamba, Chokwe, Dan, Dinka, Dogon, Ebrie, Efik, Ejagham, Hausa, Ibibio, Idoma, Ife, Igbo-Ukwu, Ijo, Jenne, Jukun, Kamba, Kissi, Kom, Kongo, Kono, kota, Kpelle, Kuba, Kuyu, Kwele, Lega, Lobi, Loma, Lozi, Luba, Lulua, Lunda, Mambila, Mende, Mossi, Nalu, Ndebele, Ngbaka, Ngoni, Nok, Nupe, Nyamwezi, Pende, Suku, Susu, Tabwa, Teke, Temne, Tetela, Tiv, Tuareg, Urhobo, Vai, Woyo, Yaka, Yoruba, and Zande.
Arrangement note:
Images indexed by negative number.
Biographical/Historical note:
A photographer best known for his work in Life magazine. Elisofon worked as a free-lance magazine photographer from 1933 to 1937, as a staff photographer for Life from 1933 to 1937 and on photographic assignments for various magazines, including the Smithsonian magazine, from 1942 to 1945. Elisofon traveled extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America documenting the peoples of these lands as well as their arts and environments. A founding member and curatorial associate of the privately owned Museum of African Art, which in 1981 became the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA), Elisofon bequeathed his collection of African photographs to the museum when he died in 1973.
General note:
Title is provided by EEPA staff based on photographer's notes.
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Genre/Form:
Photographic prints
Black-and-white photographs
Identifier:
EEPA.1973-002
Archival Repository:
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art