LC’s African and Middle Eastern Division Announces Release of the Africana Historic Postcard Collection
From The Library of Congress (via a 4 Corners of the World Blog Post by ):
The African and Middle Eastern Division is delighted to announce the rerelease of the Africana Historic Postcard Collection. Originally made available online in PDF in 2017, the collection is among the most popular resources on the AMED website. Former African Area Specialist Angel Batiste curated and oversaw the original digitization of more than 1,300 postcards. Recognizing the need for enhanced discoverability and higher resolution images, African Section Head Edward Miner and Area Specialist for Ethiopia and Eritrea Fentahun Tiruneh collaborated with the Digital Content Management Services Division to upgrade and migrate the entire set onto the Library’s Digital Collections site. Meanwhile, the African Section has acquired thousands more colonial-era African postcards for future inclusion in the online collection.
The Africana Historic Postcard Collection provides strong coverage for researchers working on the French, Italian, German, Belgian and British colonial establishments in Africa from the 1890s until the end of the 1930s.
[Clip]
Most of the first 1,300 postcards bear images relating to Ethiopia/Eritrea, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Madagascar, German East Africa, British East Africa, and the Belgian Congo. Especially well documented are the Italian invasions and occupation of the Horn of Africa (Somalia & Ethiopia/Eritrea); pre-WWI German East Africa and its occupation by British and Belgian Congo forces; and Britain’s West African Frontier Force in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. Images unique to the collection include the works of Ukrainian-born postcard photographer-producer Casimir Zagourski (1883-1944) and prolific French photographer and ethnographer Francois Edmond Fortier (1862-1928). Through their postmarks, correspondent identities, and messages, postcards provide immediate evidence of the social networks through which they circulated and the demand for imagery valorizing the colonial project they served.
Learn More About the Collection, Read the Complete Blog Post (about 1000 words)
Direct to Africana Historic Postcard Collection
Filed under: Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Interactive Tools, Libraries, Management and Leadership, News

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.