nwokikeonyeka/maa-cambridge-south-eastern-nigeria

MAA Cambridge (South Eastern Nigeria) Photographic Dataset

This dataset is a curated, scraped collection of historical photographs from South Eastern Nigeria, sourced from the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), University of Cambridge.

It focuses specifically on the "South Eastern Nigeria" search query, capturing a vital record of Igbo, Ibibio, and neighboring cultures during the early-to-mid 20th century. This dataset is intended for non-commercial research, educational, and cultural preservation purposes.

💾 Dataset Structure

The dataset is organized as a standard ImageFolder with metadata stored in data.jsonl.

• /images: Contains the high-resolution images (JPEG/PNG).
• data.jsonl: Contains the rich metadata and linkage to the images.

Schema (JSONL)

Each line in data.jsonl corresponds to a single archival record and follows this schema:

{
  "id": "N.13249.GIJ",
  "source_id": "maa_cambridge",
  "source_url": "[https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/photographs/306521](https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/photographs/306521)",
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Untitled",
    "idno": "N.13249.GIJ",
    "description": "Mau (Ghost) masquerade. Two characters performing...",
    "place": "W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Ontisha Province...",
    "date": "1932 - 1938",
    "photographer": "Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)",
    "context": "Jones describes the head mask for the character called...",
    "cultural_affiliation": "Igbo [historically Ibo]",
    "raw_text_dump": "..."
  },
  "images": [
    {
      "file_name": "N_13249_GIJ_0.jpg",
      "original_url": "[https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/media/library_images/](https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/media/library_images/)..."
    }
  ]
}

📊 Dataset Statistics

• Total Records: ~1,217 archival items.
• Total Images: ~1,217+ (Some records contain multiple views).
• Region: South Eastern Nigeria (Awka, Onitsha, Owerri, Calabar, etc.).
• Time Period: Primarily 1900s–1950s.
• Primary Source: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Cambridge.

⚠️ License and Legal Information

This dataset contains copyrighted material.

• Content License (Images & Data): The images and metadata in this dataset are made available by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
• Commercial Use: Strictly Prohibited. You may not use this dataset for commercial purposes without explicit permission from MAA Cambridge.
• Attribution: Any use of this dataset must attribute the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

User Responsibility: It is the user's responsibility to adhere to the MAA's Terms of Use and ensuring ethical usage of culturally sensitive material.

📚 Citing This Dataset

If you use this dataset in your research or project, please cite both the dataset and the original source:

Cite the Dataset:

@dataset{nwokike_maa_cambridge_nigeria_2025,
  author    = {Nwokike, Onyeka},
  title     = {MAA Cambridge (South Eastern Nigeria) Photographic Dataset},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  version   = {1.0},
  url       = "[https://huggingface.co/datasets/nwokikeonyeka/maa-cambridge-south-eastern-nigeria](https://huggingface.co/datasets/nwokikeonyeka/maa-cambridge-south-eastern-nigeria)"
}

Cite the Source (Example):

Photograph N.13249.GIJ, "Mau (Ghost) masquerade", Jones, G.I., Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.