Africa Collections

The Museum's collection of African material culture consists of over 173,000 objects gathered through donations, expeditions, purchases, and exchanges. This collection is a vital resource for research and exhibitions, comprising nearly 30,000 ethnographic and about 143,500 archaeological objects that document Africa's art, technology, architecture, and political systems.
The ethnographic collections are particularly rich in items from Nigeria, Angola, and Madagascar. The Nigerian collection features over 2,500 objects, including more than 900 from the Yoruba peoples, showcasing ceramic vessels, beaded ceremonial items, and wood carvings. Many items were collected during the 1929 expedition by Wilfrid D. Hambly. The collection from Madagascar, gathered by Ralph Linton in 1925, includes nearly 4,800 items representing various Malagasy tribes, with a focus on textiles and wood carvings. Recent additions to these collections include contemporary textiles from Madagascar and pottery from Uganda and Kenya.
The Egyptian archaeological collections contain about 3,500 objects, collected by Edward Everett Ayer starting in 1894. His acquisitions include funerary objects such as mummies and canopic jars, as well as pottery, stone, and bronze items. Notable contributions include the Gurley collection and two intact chapel rooms from tombs.
Prehistoric archaeological collections from Africa include over 140,000 items. In 1957 and 1958, a team from the University of Chicago collected approximately 7,500 pieces from Isimila in Tanzania, many of which dated back over 250,000 years. The South African collection from the Nelson Bay Cave Site includes artifacts believed to be 60,000 to 120,000 years old, representing some of the earliest anatomically modern humans. The Museum's collection of material culture from Africa is made up of over 173,000 objects that have been acquired through donations, museum-sponsored expeditions, purchases, and exchanges with other museums. This collection serves as an important resource for knowledge, research, and exhibitions. The African collections include nearly 30,000 ethnographic objects and about 143,500 archaeological objects. Through these collections, Africa's complex art, technology, architecture, and political systems are documented.
The ethnographic collections of the Museum are particularly strong in materials from Nigeria, Angola, and Madagascar. The Nigerian collection is composed of over 2,500 objects, with more than 900 coming from the Yoruba peoples. This collection includes over 200 ceramic vessels, more than 160 beaded ceremonial objects, and nearly 200 wood carvings, with over 100 being ibeji twin figure sculptures. Iron tools, musical instruments, gourd containers, and basketry are also part of this collection. A significant number of objects were collected by Wilfrid D. Hambly during the Frederick H. Rawson Field Museum Ethnological Expedition to West Africa in 1929, which included nearly 1,500 objects from Angola. The collection from Madagascar includes almost 4,800 items, primarily gathered by Ralph Linton in 1925. Linton's collection is renowned for being the most systematic of the Museum’s African holdings. It features examples from nearly all Malagasy tribes, with a particular focus on the Merina, Tanala, and Betsileo. While the 500 traditional textiles in Linton's collection are the most studied, it also includes a substantial variety of wood carvings, weapons, and ironwork. 
Egyptian archaeological collections have consisted of approximately 3,500 objects. Edward Everett Ayer began collecting these materials in Cairo and Alexandria in 1894. His acquisitions included funerary objects such as mummies, coffins, ushabtis, Books of the Dead, and canopic jars, as well as wood, stone, and bronze images, and fragments of stone reliefs that spanned from the Middle Kingdom to the Roman era. In 1907 and 1908, two intact chapel rooms from the tombs of Unis-ankh and Netcheruser were added to the Museum’s collections. Pre-Dynastic pottery, stone vessels, flints, and other objects were donated by notable figures such as Sir William M. Flinders Petrie, H.W. Seton-Karr, and Gertrude Caton Thompson. In 1944, the Gurley collection was gifted to the Museum, which included jewelry, scarabs, canopic jars, ushabtis, and statuettes. Among these items is the funerary boat of Sen-Wosret, one of only six known to exist outside of Egypt. The Egypt collection also encompasses Coptic textiles, alongside stone, bronze, and pottery pieces.
The prehistoric archaeological collections from Africa contain over 140,000 items. In 1957 and 1958, a field party from the University of Chicago gathered about 7,500 pieces from East Africa at Isimila in Tanzania. Many of these specimens were recovered from the Acheulian levels at the site and are dated by the uranium-series method to be more than 250,000 years old, with suggestions that they could be even older. A smaller collection of Middle Stone Age and later artifacts was obtained from more recent deposits at nearby locations. The South African archaeological collection originated from excavations at the Nelson Bay Cave Site, conducted by the University of Chicago along the southern African coast. The materials excavated from the Middle Stone Age levels at this site are believed to be more than 60,000 years old, and possibly as old as 120,000 years. Artifacts from this site are regarded as significant by historians and archaeologists because they are thought to be the work of the earliest anatomically modern humans.