The Frobenius Institute’s online image database consists of 100.000 images produced between 1830 and the 1960s mainly during numerous expeditions to Africa but also to Oceania, Australia, Europe and South America. The holdings show two different levels of indexation and extent of metadata:

1) The photo archive (about 60.000 images). The digitization of these images has been undertaken by the photographic department of the Frobenius Institute by mainly producing scans of the small prints contained in over 100 voluminous photo catalogues. Most of these images are yet to be indexed and described thoroughly. In most cases better quality pictures can be obtained by using the available negatives.

2) The ethnographic pictorial archive and the rock art archive (together about 40.000 images) consist of 80% illustrations (watercolour, pencil, ink etc.) and of 20% b/w vintage photographic prints. In the years 2006 to 2009 and with the financial help of the German Research Foundation (DFG) these images were digitized and to a large extent described and indexed.

Enter the image database.