Provides access to high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites
The African Cultural Heritage Sites and Landscapes Collection links high-quality visual, contextual, and spatial documentation of African heritage sites. The Collection includes photographs, 3D models, GIS data, site plans, aerial and satellite photography, images of rock art, excavation reports, manuscripts, traveller's accounts, historical and antiquarian maps, books, articles, and other scholarly research.
a collection of machine-made commemorative textiles from various African countries. This collection provides researchers access to digitized fabrics that are printed with images and text documenting events and individuals of historical, political, religious, economic, educational, and sociological significance to African societies. Throughout the continent, fabric serves multiple functions in people’s daily lives. It is used for clothing, shelter, storage, and packing material. The type of African fabric found in this collection also serves as a communication device. When used as a textual and visual document, the fabric becomes a vehicle to commemorate an event or to celebrate a person’s life or achievement.
In 2012, the MFA received a gift of 34 rare West African works of art. Thirty-two objects are from the Kingdom of Benin in present-day southern Nigeria and two are from present-day Guinea and Sierra Leone.