The contributors to this volume trace the life history of artifacts that were brought to Europe and America from Congo toward the end of the nineteenth century, and became the subjects of museum displays. They also present fascinating case studies of the pioneering collectors, including such major figures as Frobenius and Torday, discuss the complex and sensitive issues involved in the business of "collecting," and consider how these objects were used in the invention of Africa by the West.

List of figures; List of contributors; Acknowledgments; 1. Objects and agendas: re-collecting the Congo Enid Schildkrout and Curtis A. Keim; 2. 'Enlightened but in darkness': interpretations of Kuba art and culture at the turn of the twentieth century David A. Binkley and Patricia J. Darish; 3. Kuba art and the birth of ethnography John Mack; 4. Curios and curiosity: notes on reading Torday and Frobenius Johannes Fabian; Appendix: on the ethnography and economics of collecting, from Leo Frobenius' Nochmals zu den Bakubavölkern Johannes Fabian; 5. Artes Africanae: the western discovery of 'art' in northeastern Congo Curtis A. Keim; 6. Nineteenth-century images of the Mangbetu in explorers' accounts Christaud M. Geary; 7. Personal styles and disciplinary paradigms: Frederick Starr and Herbert Lang Enid Schildkrout; 8. Where art and ethnology met: the Ward African collection at the Smithsonian Mary Jo Arnoldi; 9. 'Magic, or as we usually say, art': a framework for comparing European and African art Wyatt MacGaffey; References; Index.