Warren M. Robbins Library, National Museum of African Art

The Warren M. Robbins Library at the National Museum of African Art, founded in 1971, is the major resource center in the United States for the research and study of the visual arts of Africa. Its collection of more than 50,000 volumes covers all aspects of African visual arts, including sculpture, painting, printmaking, pottery, textiles, crafts, popular culture, photography, architecture, rock art, and archaeology. The African Art Library has significant supporting collections of African ethnography, musicology, performing arts, theater, cinema, oral traditions, religion, creative writing, and arts in the African Diaspora as well as general information on the history of African countries. The African Art Library has around 5,000 artists’ files on contemporary African artists and on topics relating to African art, culture and history. It also has small collections of artists’ books, videos, posters, and maps.