Africana Collections

[Samples from the Africana Library's uncataloged collection of telephone books]

The Africana Collection includes much more than books!  The Herskovits Library also has in its collection photographs, maps, posters, videos, books in African languages, archival materials and manuscripts, as well as art objects, ephemeral materials, and other artifacts.  Below are links to those that have been indexed, cataloged and/or made digitally accessible.

• Winterton Collection of East African Photographs [1]
• 16th-20th Century Maps of Africa [2]
• Archival Materials [3]
• Posters [4]
• African Language books [5]
  [3]
• Videos [6]

Please note that special materials languages books, vertical file, rare books, posters, archival and manuscript materials and photographs are available for consultation Monday-Friday, 8:30am – 4:45pm only. Advance appointments, especially for those using these resources for the first time, are strongly encouraged.

View our guidelines for use of Africana special materials [7]

Also, for books or materials that are not at the Northwestern University Library, you can often retrieve a copy of a book, journal, or article through Interlibrary Loan.  Information about finding such  materials and requesting them is available here [8].