Founded in 1954 by Hugh Tracey, ILAM is the largest repository of African music in the world. A research institution devoted to the study of music in Africa, it preserves thousands of historical recordings going back to 1929 and supports field research and outreach and education projects. It is currently digitizing its collections and making them accessible globally via its ILAM Sound and Photo Archive Online. Its journal, African Music, now in its 6th decade, remains the only academic journal in the world devoted to research on African music. ILAM aims to promote knowledge of music making in Africa which takes into account theory of African music and the social, cultural, and artistic values of African music. It has been located at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa since 1978 where it houses a sound, film and document archive, the Tracey collection of African musical instruments, a library, and a digitizing and recording studio.