MELVILLE J. AND FRANCES S. HERSKOVITS COLLECTION

     Melville and Frances Herskovits were cultural
anthropologists, Afro-Americanists and Africanists.
A native of Bellafontaine, Ohio, Melville Jean
Herskovits completed his undergraduate training at
the University of Chicago in 1920 and his Ph.D. in
anthropology at Columbia University under Franz
Boas in 1923.  A year later, he married Frances S.
Shapiro, and by 1928, they had embarked upon the
first of many successful collaborative
anthropological research ventures.

     The Herskovits' fields of interest included
music and art, economics, literature, psychology,
theoretical formulations, and the application of
anthropological knowledge to practical affairs.
Melville and Frances travelled throughout the
African world and published the results of their
studies in articles by Frances, books and articles
by Melville and the books and articles on which
they collaborated.  In 1928 and 1929 they conducted
field work in Dutch Guiana (Surinam) and published
the results in two books, Rebel Destiny (1934) and
Surinam Folklore (1936).  In 1931 they travelled to
the Gold Coast (Ghana), Nigeria, and Dahomey
(Benin).  From this came An Outline of Dahomean
Religious Belief (1933), Dahomey: An Ancient West
African Kingdom (1937), and Dahomean Narrative
(1958).  In 1934 the Herskovitses went to Haiti.
Life in a Haitian Valley (1936) is dedicated to
Frances.  The data from their 1939 trip to Trinidad
was the foundation for their community study
Trinidad Village (1947) and Melville Herskovits'
general survey of Afro-American acculturation,
The Myth of the Negro Past (1941).

     The Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits
Collection includes raw data--field notes,
notebooks, and diaries as well as draft manuscripts
for all of the above noted anthropological studies.
(The draft manuscript for The Myth of the Negro
Past is included in the Center's Typescript
Collection.)  In addition, the collection includes
over 500 artworks from Africa and the African
diaspora; photographic documentation of field trips
and other research ventures on the continent and in
the diaspora; extensive personal and professional
papers, correspondence and photographs; and the
Herskovits' large library.  Selected documentation
of Melville Herskovits' role as founding director
of the African Studies Program at Northwestern
University, as well as diaries, research notes and
draft manuscripts for two surveys of conditions in
Africa on the eve of decolonization are also
included.  The Melville J. and Frances S.
Herskovits Collection is one of the Center's
largest and most comprehensive sources of
documentation on African cultures in Africa and the
Americas.  It was donated to the Center in 1986 by
their daughter, Dr. Jean Frances Herskovits,
Professor of History at the State University of
New York at New Paltz.