William B. Fagg Archive
1949-1982
Benin Democratic Republic of the Congo Nigeria
Benin
Over a ten-year period, British art historian and ethnographer William B. Fagg made a series of trips to Benin, the Congo, and Nigeria to photograph the work of artists, ceremonies, and daily life in those regions. The resulting images are an especially valuable record of the royal art of Benin, Owo, and Ife. This collection of 2,800 black and white photographs is one of only four sets of the Fagg archive in the United States and was printed from the original negatives held by the Royal Anthropological Society in London. In addition to the images, the collection also contains annotated transcriptions of Fagg’s original field notes and photographs of Fagg himself.
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Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:
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Typescript papers, manuscript papers, photocopied papers, black and white and color photographic prints.