Guide to Smithsonian Institution Archives, Libraries & Special Collections



Archives of American Art Archives of American Gardens Archives Center, National Museum of American History Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection Archive Human Studies Film Archives Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum National Air and Space Archives National Anthropological Archives National Museum of the American Indian Archives Peale Family Papers, National Portrait Gallery Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Smithsonian American Art Museum Slide and Photo Archives Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Smithsonian Institution Archives Smithsonian Institution Libraries Smithsonian Photographic Services Affiliated Organization: National Gallery of Art	Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
	Asante paramount chief Nana Akyanfuo Akowuah Dateh II, in Kumasi, Ghana. Photograph by Eliot Elisofon, 1970. Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives National Museum of African Art 950 Independence Ave, SW Room 2140 Washington, DC 20560 Mailing Address: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives P.O. Box 37012 NMAfA, MRC 708 Washington, DC 20013-7012 202.633.4690 202.357.4879 www.si.edu/nmafa/resource/ archives.htm Hours Monday – Friday 10am to 4pm Appointment Required Metro Stop: Smithsonian	The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at the National Museum of African Art is a research and reference center for visual materials, and is devoted to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of visual resources that encourage and support the study of the arts, peoples, and history of Africa. Archives staff conducts picture research in the fields of African art and cultural history and research on the history of photography in Africa. In addition, the staff works with art historians, photographers, anthropologists, filmmakers, and other interested specialists in the acquisition and preservation of visual resources. Highlights: The major collection was created by Eliot Elisofon, an internationally known photographer and filmmaker. Upon his death in 1973, Mr. Elisofon bequeathed the museum his African materials, which comprised more than 50,000 black-and-white photographs, 30,000 color transparencies, and over 120,000 feet of unedited film. The bequest became the foundation of the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives. Since 1973, the Archives' holdings have grown to include more than 180,000 color transparencies and 80,000 black-and-white photographs. In recent years, rare historical collections of original glass negatives, lantern slides, stereographs, and postcards have been acquired, which date from the 1870s to the 1940s. The holdings are divided into two major categories: art photographs, which show African works of art in museum and gallery settings, and field photographs, which depict life and ar t in Africa. The art portion of the holdings consists mainly of photographs of objects in the permanent collection of the National Museum of African Art. The field section comprises more than one hundred collections, most of which reflect the work of particular photographers. Many of the images were taken by well-known art historians or anthropologists, missionaries, and travelers to Africa.