Tangier American Legation Museum (AIMS-TALM), Tangier, Morocco

TALM, the second branch of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies, is located in the old walled city of Tangier in a charming complex of 45 rooms built around several courtyards. The original site was offered as a gift to the U.S. government in 1821 by the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Suleiman. Since 1976, a public non-profit organization, TALM, has rented this national landmark from the U.S. government. Today, TALM is active on several fronts: operating a museum open to the public, collaborating with a Moroccan NGO in social work and renovation activity in the old city, and functioning as the AIMS research and conference center in Morocco.

In the 25 years since its inception the research library has developed into a focused and evolving collection benefiting from a number of major donations: the Reed and Hart collections of books on Morocco; the Angus collection with English language material dating from the 17th century; the Loomis collection with a wide range of Spanish Protectorate publications, the Pendar collection of pre-1940 French editions; a collection of materials dealing with the Western Sahara issue donated by Professor John Damis; and a collection of books and other materials dealing with the World War II landings in North Africa (Operation Torch), donated by Gordon Browne. More recently the Forbes family donated Malcolm Forbes' library, consisting of 2,000 works including old and unique documents and a rare book and Portuguese pamphlet collection, many dating back several hundred years.

Of particular note, the TALMS Library contains a collection of 19th century travel accounts, books on the precolonial and colonial period, and studies on social organization (tribes, Berbers, etc.). The library maintains a collection of English language newspapers published in Tangier (The Tangier Gazette or Moghreb El Aksa, 1884 to1960) in hard copy. Also on microfilm are copies of a unique newspaper published in London devoted to Morocco (1918-1924) as well as dispatches and letters pertaining to U.S diplomatic history with Morocco. The Reed and Forbes donations include a large number of historical photographs of prominent Moroccan and American personalities from the 1950-1990 period. The Museum's extensive art collection contains a series of engravings by Wenceslaus Hollar depicting the English in Tangier in the 17th century as well as other engravings related to this period.