National Museum of African Art

The National Museum of African Art has a collection that includes 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from Sub-Saharan and Arab North Africa.

The institution was first founded in 1964, with a collection focused on traditional African art. It joined the Smithsonian Institution in 1979 and became the National Museum of African Art two years later.

As the Smithsonian Institution’s African art museum, it was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States.

Today the collection is exhibited in a mostly underground museum building that was completed in 1987, just off the National Mall and adjacent to other Smithsonian museums.

The National Museum of African Art collects traditional and contemporary works of historical importance.

The collection ranges from 15th-century sculptures and masks to multi-media contemporary art and includes 300,000 photographs with significant contributions from photojournalists covered major 20th-century events.

The museum’s library has over 50,000 volumes in visual arts, anthropology, cooking, history, religion, and travel especially works published in Africa.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art

Highlights of the National Museum of African Art

Bini-Portuguese style Ivory spoons, saltcellars, and hunting horns featuring European subjects made for export
Figures created by the Luba peoples, Gabon Democratic Republic, Late 19th to early 20th century
Four-faced helmet mask from the Cross River region
Ceramic figures dating from between the 13th and 15th centuries
Masks from the Boki peoples, Nigeria, Late 19th to early 20th century
Crown by the Yoruba peoples, Nigeria Early 20th century