Scholar to Discuss ‘Collecting the Indian Ocean’ at La Maison Française

By Barbara Jester

An array of books, periodicals, maps, and other materials pertaining to the Indian Ocean region, recently acquired by the Division of Libraries, will be the focus of discussion on Thursday, October 18, at 7 p.m., when La Maison Française hosts Larry W. Bowman, professor emeritus of Africana studies at the University of Connecticut, for a lecture entitled “Collecting the Indian Ocean.”

The collection, comprising books, rare periodical runs and other bound materials, antiquarian maps, prints, and sea charts, many of them held in no other North American library, was assembled by Bowman, a longtime collector of Indian Ocean material. The material ranges topically through fields such as voyages and explorations, history and politics, natural history, literature, navigation, and climate.

“As a heuristic device, the study of the Indian Ocean area is an emerging field—similar to the more developed field of Atlantic studies,” says Timothy Johnson, NYU’s librarian for Africana studies, anthropology, and food studies. “With this acquisition, NYU will house one of the deepest collections of Indian Ocean materials in the U.S., one that complements our strong holdings in Africana.”

The collection contains material from the entire Indian Ocean littoral from Cape Town to Fremantle, with a particular focus on Mauritius and Seychelles.