Herbalist’s Staff (Opa Osanyin or Opa Erinle), iron, 508×190.5×203.2 mm, Yoruba culture, made in Guinea Coast, Nigeria, 19th–early 20th century (New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of Drs. Ruth and Theodore Lidz, Ascension ID: 1995.81.1); image credit: Yale University Art Gallery. Grove Art Online
This guide is designed to help you find and use resources on the art of Africa and and African Diaspora. Please refer to your course syllabus for details about the assignment requirements.
If, after using this guide, you would like additional assistance with finding resources, please contact Cheryl Collins. You can also use the LibChat box that is enabled in Primo 9am to 5pm weekdays, or email us, using the Ask A Librarian form in the HELP page of this guide (see the Table of Contents menu on the left)
The Van Rijn Archive of African Art (YVRA) at the Yale University Art Gallery is the largest photographic digital database of African art in existence, with some 150,000 images of art from Africa south of the Sahara. Developed by Guy van Rijn in collaboration with Frederick John Lamp and Bruno Claessens, it documents art created before the mid-20th century. The images in the database are drawn from a variety of sources, including private and museum collections, personal and national archives, and a wide range of publications, such as books, articles, notices, and auction catalogues. Providing an unparalleled resource for the study of historic African arts, the archive was acquired in 2001 for Yale University by James J. Ross, and, since 2004, has been supervised by the Department of African Art at the Yale University Art Gallery.
