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Nancy and George Axinn
We became deeply immersed in all things Nigerian when the administration of Michigan State University asked George to coordinate its program in Nigeria in 1960. From 1961 through 1965 George made fourteen round trips between the MSU campus in East Lansing and the University of Nigeria campus at Nsukka, always with intermediate stops on the campus of our cooperating institution, the University of London. Nancy did field research in Nsukka for her MSU masters degree on one of these journeys. Then we both moved to Nsukka, with our four children, and lived there until the Biafran war interrupted our work in mid-1967. During this time we made frequent visits to rural villages near Nsukka, as well as other parts of Nigeria. We had no particular collecting strategy for Nigerian artifacts, but received gifts from many colleagues and friends, and did some purchasing. Locally produced textiles were of particular interest, and the Yoruba adire cloths are special examples. We were also interested in wood carvings. The Lamidi Fakeye sculpture representing Eshu that is featured in the exhibition is the finest of those.
Among the many other MSU faculty who worked with us, and also collected Nigerian art, was Miriam J. Kelley. Miriam was particularly interested in textiles, and prior to her death in 1992, we helped arrange for the donation of her entire collection to the Museum.
Collector / Donor Statements
Virginia Artis . Nancy and George Axinn . Marsha MacDowell and Kurt Dewhurst . James Ellison . Robert Glew . Suzanne Miers . Simon Ottenberg . Barbara Porter-Spaulding . Raymond Silverman . Neal Sobania . Robert Zigler
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