Individual Article:
The Winterton Collection proves valuable for researchers at Northwestern and abroad
Since early 2003, the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies and Northwestern University have been home to a remarkable collection of African photographs, which has garnered more than a little attention and research interest. The Winterton Collection of East African Photographs 1860-1960 documents life in Africa during a pivotal era that witnessed the rise and fall of European colonialism. The collection, amassed by British collector Humphrey Winterton, has already been host to many researchers from Northwestern and other institutions of higher learning from the United States and abroad.
Swahili coast expert and Wayne V. Jones Research Professor of History at Northwestern, Dr. Jonathan Glassman, has been involved with the research and promotion of the Winterton Collection since it was acquired in 2003. Professor Glassman has pointed out an abundance of research topics in African Studies that will be elucidated by research in the Winterton Collection. He says that “the collection has enormous potential for student research” and that the photographs made him “think of the dissertation projects of many of our graduate students past and present.” Glassman himself used a photograph from the Winterton Collection to illustrate his article, “Slower Than A Masacre: The Multiple Sources of Racial Thought in Colonial Africa.” The photo of a Zanzibar ivory market from 1890 appeared on the cover of The American Historical Review in June 2004. Glassman has subsequently been using images from the Winterton Collection to supplement his lectures on East African history and will no doubt make use of the collection in future publications.
In spring 2004, Professor Heike Behrend, a visiting scholar to the Program of African Studies from the University of Cologne, identified Kenyan and Tanzanian studio photographs of Africans from the Winterton Collection. Professor Behrend has published a book and articles on the history of Kenyan studio photography. She herself is a collector of East African studio photography and the Winterton Collection provided her with an important resource to fact check, gather images, and support future scholarship in the field.
In the summer of 2004, a professor from Yale teaching in Northwestern’s National High School Institute used the Winterton collection primarily as a resource for theatrical costume design. The play, performed by students of the institute, concerned British imperialists and the Winterton Collection was put to use to synthesize fashions of British colonial attire. The professor digitally projected images from the collection for his students and let them determine the style of the show.
Godwin Murunga, a Ph.D. candidate in history, intends to use the Winterton Collection photographs in his dissertation. Godwin is writing on health, sanitation, and segregation in colonial Nairobi. The Winterton Collection offers many views of Nairobi during this period of urban growth and dramatic social change that will be valuable additions to Godwin’s project.
Matthew Teti