Scope and arrangement
The Anne Forrester collection contains a range of personal and professional materials from 1959 to 2006, underlining Forrester's life-long pursuits as an Africanist. In the collection, there are documents on the various international organizations that Forrester was associated with throughout her career, such as the African Communications Institute (ACI), the Global Rights Organization, the African Development Foundation (ADF), the Association of Black American Ambassadors, TransAfrica, and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). The collection also contains Forrester's academic papers, a screenplay, and published articles on Africa and African affairs.
The Anne Forrester collection is arranged in three series:
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1959-2006
This series includes very little substantive biographical information on Forrester; however, there are items that reveal some of her academic and professional accomplishments. The bulk of the documents note the passing of Forrester in 2006, and the activities of her mother, Elizabeth J. Forrester (1916-1991), as a community activist. Additionally, there are Forrester's school-related materials, including a speech entitled "Reflections on Africa", which she delivered at Bennington College, denoting her experiences and life work in African affairs. Forrester's certificates, diplomas, and awards, as well as announcements for conferences where she spoke, are located in an oversized box.
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1963-2004
This series contains published and unpublished writings by Forrester, both while in school and during her professional career. The titles within this series that are unpublished are: "The Concept of 'Separateness' and 'Holiness' Sect Behavior in Harlem" (1963), "The Trading State of the Nyamwezi, 1830-1884", (1968), "Company Versus Country: a Historical Record of African Underdevelopment", and "The Sondai Fragment" (1975), a screenplay written for her Ph.D. dissertation.
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1968-2005
This series represents Forrester's professional career as a foreign diplomat, a United Nations representative, and an active member of organizations such as the African Communications Institute (ACI), the Global Rights Organization, African Development Foundation (ADF), Association of Black American Ambassadors, and TransAfrica. Unfortunately, the materials in this series do not offer a deeper perspective on the details of the work Forrester did during her long career. The Association of Black American Ambassadors folder includes correspondence, bank statements, budgetary information, bylaws, and meeting minutes. However, the documents do not reflect Forrester's role in the association or any of her activities. Forrester served as a board member for the Global Rights Organization (1970-2004), for which there are two folders containing some organizational materials. The first folder of materials was either written or compiled by her; it includes corporation records, bylaws, tax forms, and expense reports on individual countries that the organization worked with. The second folder contains printed matter and reports about work she did in Liberia after the civil war in 2004. The miscellaneous folder contains mainly correspondence (1981-1985, 2004), some dealing with salary and award amounts Forrester received, and a directory for members of the Association of Former International Civil Servants (AFICS). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) folder consists of documents concerning her posts in Africa, Barbados, and the Eastern Caribbean. Additionally, there are items that relate to Drum and Spear Press including email correspondence, a letter from C.R.L. James (1969), and two Drum and Spear book catalogs.