This is a biographical guide to African ethnology collections acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and its predecessors — John Varden's Washington City Museum and the National Institute — between 1828 and 1943. The guide focuses on collectors of African material culture, rather than on the objects themselves. As such, it includes entries for many individuals whose collections are no longer held by the Smithsonian Institution. It also includes entries for collectors of relatively minor accessions while it sometimes ignores, for want of information, those responsible for the most important. Users should note that the length of a collector's biography bears no relationship to the size, significance or quality of his or her collection. The guide is arranged alphabetically by collector's name, followed by the donor's name, where different. As a rule, only the donor's first accession and its date of receipt are recorded. Many entries include a bibliography of publications by or about the collectors and donors, but these are seldom comprehensive. They usually include the subject's most important writings, publications of the National Museum of Natural History's staff, and lesser-known sources included as guides to further biographical research. Most biographies were assembled from published sources, accession records, catalog cards and accompanying notes. The Smithsonian Institution Archives and the National Anthropological Archives maintain additional records and correspondence from donors and collectors. Users may also consult Mary Jo Arnoldi (1992) and Gordon Gibson (n.d.) for descriptions of other early African collections in the Smithsonian Institution.