In 1948, Melville J. Herskovits, a student of Franz Boas and founder of the University's anthropology department in 1928, launched the first major interdisciplinary program in African and African American studies, titled the Program of African Studies. In connection with this program, he aggressively expanded the existing Library of African Studies until his death in 1963. The library was named in his honor now possesses more than 285,000 volumes, 250 newspapers, and extensive collections of maps, posters, photographs, and other miscellaneous items that make this collection the largest in the world.