This collection documents the Asante, Baka, Baule, Berber, Dogomba, Dogon, Fulani, Gurunsi, Gonja, Hausa, Lobi, Mamprusi, Mossi, Senufo, Serer, Tsonga, Tuareg, Wolof, and Yoruba peoples; architecture, animals, artwork, celebrations, ceremonies, landscapes, masquerades, markets, mosques, portraits, shrines, and street scenes in Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Morocco, Republic of Benin, Central African Republic, Namibia, and Senegal.
Scope and Contents:
This collection was created during field work by Enid Schildkrout and John A. Van Couvering in several countries, including Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Morocco, Republic of Benin, Central African Republic, Namibia, and Senegal. Peoples depicted include the Asante, Baka, Baule, Berber, Dogomba, Dogon, Fulani, Gurunsi, Gonja, Hausa, Lobi, Mamprusi, Mossi, Senufo, Serer, Tsonga, Tuareg, Wolof, and Yoruba peoples. Many of the images depict architecture, animals, artwork, celebrations, ceremonies, landscapes, masquerades, markets, mosques, portraits, shrines, and street scenes.
Biographical / Historical:
Enid Schildkrout is an American anthropologist, professor, and Curator Emerita of African Ethnology, Division of Anthropology, at the American Museum of Natural History. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College (1963), and a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University (1965, 1967, 1970). Schildkrout performed field research in numerous countries including Ghana and Burkina Faso (1960s); Kano, Nigeria (late 1970s and early 1980s); and in Mali, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Namibia. She has worked extensively with museum collections and conducted an in-depth study of the history of the art of the Mangbetu people (Democratic Republic of Congo). Among the exhibitions that Schildkrout has curated are: African Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire; Body Art: Marks of Identity; Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria; and Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art. She has lectured and taught classes at Columbia University, Yale University, McGill University, and the University of Illinois, among others. She has published articles in African Arts and authored numerous books.
John A. Van Couvering is a professor, editor and geologist. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Cambridge (1973) and specializes in the principles and practices in stratigraphic geology; age and environments of Cenozoic mammal faunas of Africa and southern Eurasia; and the Neogene time scale and chronostratigraphic boundaries.
He spent five years doing fieldwork with Louis Leakey in East Africa and served as Micropaleontology Press's editor-in-chief from 1978 to its dissolution in 2004.
He currently serves on international and national working groups concerned with the stratigraphic code, and participates in regional studies of such problems as the Messinian desiccation event and the beginning of the Pleistocene. He has published in the Journal of Human Evolution and the Journal of Geological Society and co-authored and edited numerous books.
Provenance:
Donated by Enid Schildkrout and John A. Van Couvering, 2018.
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.
Enid Schildkrout and John A. Van Couvering Collection, EEPA 2018-005, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African, Smithsonian Institution.
Identifier:
EEPA.2018-005
Archival Repository:
Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
