Rare Collection of Antique Maps Unveiled at Northwestern University of Chicago.

Established in 1954, the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University in Chicago is said to have the largest collection of African art, history and literature in the world. Recently, it unveiled a collection of antique African maps created as far back as the 15th century.

David Easterbrook, the curator of the library, says that the early cartographers who created these maps based their data mainly on anecdotal information from travelers. They also used the limited literature of European scholars, and antiquities of Greek and Roman scholars who had written of, or traveled to, Africa.

“They were taking text and turning it into something visual,” he said.

Easterbrook adds that the maps cover in particular North Africa and Algeria, Madagascar and other islands, and a few city plans. They have a basic structural knowledge which has been the foundation for the newer more accurate maps created by modern cartographers. He emphasizes, “[They are] crude renditions of the map of Africa.”

However, as he stressed, the maps do not give a clear resolution to the longstanding controversy about the real source of the Nile, a topic that has of late been on the minds of many geographers around the Central and East African regions. Some geographers say the source is in Rwanda, others, in Uganda.

The digital collection highlights a series of maps of North Africa by famous cartographers like Italian Girolamo Ruscelli that date as far back as 1565. They also include a series of Algerian maps published by the French government in the mid-1800's, and maps by other notable cartographers, such as Nicholas Sanson, and Fredrick de Wit.

The Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University has made these resources and many other African materials in the library available to readers in digitized form available on the internet at

Bausen Antique Collection

Selected from the Rustic grade - a hand scraped, hand stained solid oak floor, to give an "Antique Old English Appearance" distinctive to this range. Finished off with 7 layers of U V Lacquer.

Available in board size : 18mmx125mm* (*150mm Traditional) – Random length
Finishes available:

Antiques Collection

I am fond of antiques, heritage, and the like. The real collector in the family is my mother. Throughout her life, she was an avid collector of antiques from various parts of the world. Here are some samples of things that were collected from various places over Egypt of the previous decades.

These pictures will give you an idea on what we like. They were taken by a (now old) Minolta Dimage Digital camera.

Click on any picture to see a larger image.

The Tulane Manuscripts Department

The Tulane Manuscripts Department makes a special effort to preserve the literary heritage of our region. Among its voluminous holdings of the papers of writers and the records of literary organizations are the following:

The illustration: John Kennedy Toole, author, Confederacy of Dunces, ca. 1945.

* Augustin, Wogan, Labranche Family Papers, 1803-1969 (bulk 1842-1936), 1 lin. ft., Manuscripts Collection 223. A collection of family papers, primarily of the Augustin family in Santiago, Cuba 1803-1809 and in New Orleans 1842-1923, with notes and papers of the Wogan family. A section is devoted to the writings of Louisiana author Jeanne Wogan Arguedas, who wrote Creole poems, stories and songs under the pen name, Anne Labranche.

Antique Radio Websites

Here's a sampler of the terabytes of information now available to radio lovers across the planet. When I launched this site in 1995, there was only one other antique radio website in the world. I don't have time to count them now, but I suspect there are hundreds. If you know about a choice radio website that should be added to this list, send me some