The Marilyn Houlberg Haiti Collection includes negatives, audio cassettes, video reels, prints, CDs, DVDs, field books, and manuscript materials, including lecture/research files and correspondence, which were created from the 1970s to circa 2012 by Houlberg and focus on the arts and culture of Haiti, especially those of the Afro-Caribbean religion of Voudou.
Scope and Contents:
The Marilyn Houlberg Haiti Collection includes approximately (267) 35mm color negatives, (8) audio cassettes, (19) Video8 (8mm video format) reels, (27) CD-ROMS, (1) CD, (12) DVD-ROMS, (1) Super8 reel, (4,011) color slides, (3,012) color photographic prints (12 x 16 inches or smaller), hundreds of copy prints, (7) memory cards, (1) canister of 35mm film, and manuscript materials, including correspondence, (30) field books and lecture/research files that were created by Houlberg from the 1970s to circa 2012, and which focus on the arts and culture of Haiti, especially those of the Afro-Caribbean religion of Voudou.
The research files include notes that informed her teaching, exhibitions, and publications, including: "Haitian Studio Photography: A Hidden World of Images" in Rebecca Busselle, ed., Haiti: Feeding the Spirit (1992); Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou (exhibition catalog, 1998); and "Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou: Lasiren, Queen of Mermaids", in Mami-Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and the African-Atlantic World (2008).
Biographical / Historical:
Artist, anthropologist, and art historian Dr. Marilyn Hammersley Houlberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1939. Houlberg received an Associate of Arts degree from Wright Junior College (1959) and a BFA from the University of Chicago (1963). After graduating, she traveled to North Africa and explored Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. In 1964, Houlberg researched Haitian art, religion, and indigenous photography in Haiti and in 1965 was awarded a scholarship for graduate study from the University of Chicago. There she completed her MAT in Art History in 1967. Following graduation, Houlberg worked at the Nigerian Museum in Lagos, where she documented Yoruba sculpture, masquerades, religion, body art, and indigenous photography.
She began her teaching career at the University of Chicago as a lecturer on African art and African civilization, working there from 1971 to 1973. At the University of London, Houlberg earned a Masters in Anthropology, producing the thesis Yoruba Twin Sculpture and Ritual (1973). She also extensively photographed her travels abroad in Yorubaland. Between 1974 and 1990, Houlberg taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, Kalamazoo College, and Northwestern University. From 1974 to 2008 she continued teaching at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, lecturing on Yoruba art and ritual in West Africa and the New World, and the art and ritual of Vodou in Haiti.
Houlberg has lectured worldwide at numerous museums and symposiums since 1972, including in Lagos, Nigeria; Jacmel, Haiti; Toronto, Canada; Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; and Cologne, Germany. Her essays have been published in several issues of African Arts. Some of Houlberg's significant publications include Arts of the Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou, in Sacred Waters: Arts for Mami Wata and Other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora (2008) and Water Spirits of Haitian Vodou: Lasiren, Queen of Mermaids, in Mami-Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and the African-Atlantic World (2008). The exhibition Mami-Wata at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (2009) featured her photographs.
Related Materials:
The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives also holds several other collections by Marilyn Houlberg: two collections document Nigeria (EEPA 2005-002 and EEPA 2015-015) and another documents Haiti (EEPA 2012-004).
Restrictions:
Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
Rights:
Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
