William B. Fagg Archive

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. View finding aid.View selected images from this collection. Collection access:Collections may be accessed in the Franke Reading Room of the Research Center at The Art Institute of Chicago, by appointment only. For further information, consult the FAQ. Finding aids by subjectBrowse all finding aidsBrowse images and mediaOral histories Contact the Ryerson and Burnham Art and Architecture Archives:archives@artic.edu