A collection of books, periodicals, maps, and other rare materials pertaining to the Indian Ocean region, recently acquired by the New York University Division of Libraries, will spark discussion on Thursday, October 18, at 7 p.m., when La Maison Française of NYU, located at 16 Washington Mews (at University Place), hosts Larry W. Bowman, professor emeritus of Africana studies at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, for a lecture entitled Collecting the Indian Ocean. The lecture is free and open to the public. For further information, call 212.998.8750, or visit www.nyu.edu/maisonfrancaise.
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.
The collection contains material from the entire Indian Ocean littoral from Cape Town to Fremantle, with a particular focus on Mauritius and Seychelles.