The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-Saharan and North Africa, 300,000 photographs, and 50,000 library volumes. It was the first institution dedicated to African art in the United States and remains the largest collection. The Washington Post called the museum a mainstay in the international art world and the main venue for contemporary African art in the United States. The museum was founded in 1964 by a Foreign Service in Capitol Hill. The collection focused on traditional African art and an educational mission to teach black cultural heritage. To ensure the museum's longevity, the founder lobbied Congress to adopt the museum under the Smithsonian's auspices. It joined the Smithsonian in 1979 and became the National Museum of African Art two years later. A new, primarily underground museum building was completed in 1987, just off the National Mall and adjacent to other Smithsonian museums. It is among the Smithsonian's smallest museums. The African art museum took a scholarly direction over the next twenty years, with less social programming. It collected traditional and contemporary works of historical importance. Exhibitions include both internal and borrowed works and have ranged from solo artists to broad survey shows. The museum hosts two to three temporary exhibitions and ten special events annually. The preferred abbreviation for its name is NMAfA. History In the late 1950's, American Foreign Service officer Warren M. Robbins purchased 32 pieces of African Art in an antique shops near Hamburg, Germany. In 1963 he founded the Center for Cross Cultural Communication, a non-profit educational institute and cultural center. In 1964, the Frederick Douglass House on Capitol Hill came on the market. Robbins put all of his savings down in cash for half of the purchase price and procured a mortgage for the rest. Money raised by the Center for Cross Cultural Communication enabled Robbins to found the Museum of African Art. The museum was formally founded in 1964 as the Museum of African Art, and its first show consisted of the collection and two outside pieces. Under Robbins's tenure, the museum focused on traditional African art and its educational mission to teach black cultural heritage. It also served as a convivial meeting place for individuals interested in American racial politics, in keeping