The archives at the musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac provide access to the combined historical archive of the Musée du Trocadéro, later renamed the Musée de l’Homme, and the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie. It also holds the private archive of the important Parisian dealer Louis Carré. The museum archives have all been digitised; however, until autumn 2023 they are only available for consultation onsite at the museum. For full access conditions see the museum’s website. It should be noted that these are set to change, as the museum plans to make all publicly available archives accessible online at the end of 2023, which will include most of the archives referenced here. However, specific access conditions will be maintained for recently acquired documents that provide sensitive personal information.
Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here