American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Africa: Explorations and Expeditions (Exhibition)
birth: 1998 January
death: 1998 August
Exhibition. Opened February 2, 1998 and closed August 2, 1998. Located on Floor 4 in the Library Gallery. Africa: Explorations and Expeditions featured rare books, field notebooks, diaries, photographs, sketches, artifacts, and specimens illustrating more than 200 years of European, American, and Museum expeditions and discoveries in Africa.
Summary
Africa: Explorations and Expeditions, curated by Roscoe Thompson, assistant director for Reference Services in the Museum Library, featured rare books from the Library, field notebooks, diaries, photographs, sketches, artifacts, and specimens illustrating more than 200 years of European, American, and Museum expeditions and discoveries in Africa (1). Museum expeditions featured in this exhibition included Henry Fairfield Osborn’s Expedition to the Desert of Fayoum, Egypt in 1906, the American Museum Expedition to the Congo (1909-1915), Carl Akeley’s expeditions to East Africa, and the Morden African Expedition (2).
Highlights (1; 2):
*Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile in the Years 1768-1772 by James Bruce
*Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Performed in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797 by Mungo Park
*How I Found Livingston (1872) and In Darkest Africa (1890) by Henry Morton Stanley
*10 folio-sized volumes of Description de L’Egypte, published between 1809 and 1828, conceived and directed by Napoleon Bonaparte
*Ivory objects given to Herbert Lang by Chief Okondo during the American Museum Expedition to the Congo (1909-1915)
*A Congo peacock painted by James Chapin during the American Museum Expedition to the Congo (1909-1915)
*Asante gold weights
*Hand-colored prints from 1819 illustrating Asante board game displayed with actual board game
This is a condensed summary of the exhibition. For additional information, see Sources and/or Related Resources.