Including monographs, journals, unpublished manuscripts, reprints, typewritten and handwritten notes, notebooks, teaching and administrative papers, news clippings, ephemera, and a limited amount of correspondence, this collection is mostly composed of papers connected with Fortune's research and teaching concerning African linguistics, particularly Southern Bantu linguistic groups. Included are tape recordings, and large bound notebooks of notes and tape transcripts, which detail African stories and songs (in their original language and English translation). Fortune and his colleagues collected and recorded these materials while carrying out fieldwork and interviews in mid-twentieth century Africa. Other noteworthy pieces of the collection include unpublished manuscripts by the Zimbabwean poet and scholar J.C. Kumbirai; a handwritten and bound (original?) copy of Hugh Tracey's classic text Ngoma; and a photograph and negative of A.C. Jordan. Materials concerning Shona language and culture are particularly well represented in the collection, including extensive notes and writings concerning Shona dialects, phonetics, stories, and songs. The papers include both Shona and English language materials, with Shona writings often accompanied by English translations. The collection also encompasses Rhodesian news clippings and ephemera.
