Rare books related to African studies cover a range of material, dating back to the 18th century, but focusing largely on material from the 20th century. The collections includes a robust collection of first edition and early edition travel writing on Africa from European authors, original materials from the colonial period, and rich collections on many countries from the postcolonial period.
Rare Africana materials include a special focus on political activism, including far right and far left political tracts, as well as material that is placed in Special Collections due to its rarity as a publicly available volume. There are therefore many topics that one might be researching in which material can be found in MSUL's Special Collections.
Materials can be found by searching for the desired title, author, or subject term in the catalog, indicating only material from Special Collections should be listed in the location drop-down menu.
A subset of the rare published materials that can be found in MSUL's Special Collections are cookbooks. Special Collections has a large, growing, and globally diverse cookbook collection, with a particular strength in cookbooks from the African continent. These cookbooks range from the very late 19th century, from South Africa, to cookbooks produced in African countries today, covering most African nations.
Cookbooks can be found searching the subject heading Cooking, African in the catalog, as well as by searching variants using a country name in place of "African."
MSUL's Special Collections has the largest publicly available comic art collection in the country, covering a range of popular western titles, as well as many comics from around the world (over 50,000). Comics from Africa are regularly added to the collection, and cover materials from several countries, as well as comics about Africa, both historical and contemporary, from Europe, the United States, and Mexico.
The Comic Art Collection index can be found here. Subject headings in the catalog to find relevant materials follow the format: South African comic books, strips, etc.