A large part of Special Collections' holdings is made up of manuscripts, printed materials, and graphic pieces relating to the Society of Friends. Quakers published newsletters about Africa, and Quaker meetings in Africa also put out publications beginning in the early twentieth century. African travel narratives and descriptions as well as a 1600 edition of the influential account by Leo Africanus. Special Collections also has a group of twenty-five African artifacts that illustrate a range of uses, mediums, time periods, and geographical regions. Magill has in the Philips Wing a number of books and pamphlets about various African colonization schemes including the American Colonization Society, a controversial early nineteenth-century effort to have African Americans set up colonies along the West Coast of Africa.
Courses dealing with Africa are relatively new.
As a result, library collections have a higher proportion of recent materials. There is a preference for English language materials, with some attention to French language publications. Works in African languages are not collected. These materials are located in the Friends Historical Library. The University of Pennsylvania holdings in African Studies are housed in libraries across the campus.