Black and White Photographs
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Brinkworth, William Ian
setName: label: See more items in
content: William Ian Brinkworth collection
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 637 Photographs (Boxes 1-5, black and white photographs)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1946-1957
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: EEPA.2008-009, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: The 637 black and white photographs (11x17 or smaller), are organized according to subject categories supplied by Brinkworth written on the outside of the original folders. In many cases the photographs from one subject folder were distributed into several folders for preservation purposes. The folder numbers correspond to the subjects assigned by Brinkworth. Within the subject folders the photographs are also organized according to a numeric system provided by Brinkworth and his wife, Marida. Brinkworth recorded annotations of these photographs onto ¼ in. audio cassette tapes, which are also contained in the collection (the annotations conclude with number 372 on tape 6; it appears that tape 7 has been recorded over).

Some photographs were unnumbered by Brinkworth but were assigned accession numbers and kept in the folder arrangement (i.e. subject category) created by Brinkworth. Some have typed or hand-written captions on the reverse sides of the images. In some cases, duplicates of the same photograph were found amongst several folders. Unnumbered duplicates were placed with the corresponding numbered and annotated photographs. Oversized photographs were removed and put in a separate flat box (Box 5). Pages were inserted in the original folders of the oversized photographs to indicate that the photograph was relocated in Box 5. All of the black and white photographs can be found in Boxes 1-5.

Many photographs have corresponding negatives in the collection and these are identified with the negative number on the photographic enclosures (see Series V inventory). Titles of b/w photographs in quotation marks are the original titles written or typed by Brinkworth on the backs of photographs. Titles in brackets were adapted from Ian Brinkworth's annotations and audio cassettes and supplied by intern Allison Thomas in 2008. Brinkworth's original numbers annotated on the audiotapes are provided in parentheses after the accession number in the inventory and in parenthesis below the accession numbers on the folders containing the b/w photographs.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: The photographic prints depict a wide variety of peoples, places and traditions. Some of the topics include Benin clay figures, hairstyling, the Oba's queens, Brinkworth's touring van, bronze casting and figures, tattooing, masquerades and other ceremonies, fishing, agriculture, crafts and marketplaces, dancing and musicians, personal adornment, architecture, transportation vehicles, beading and crown-making, cooking, shrines, temples and various art objects. Also descriptively documented is the constructed of a playing field at Alaro. All of the photographs were most likely taken between 1946 and 1957 during Brinkworth's tenure as District Office in Nigeria.