Ethiopia was HMML’s first project with Eastern Christian manuscripts and its first in Africa. That pioneering effort in the 1970s created the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) a collection of some 9,000 manuscripts from across Ethiopia, allowing a full view of Ethiopic literature for the first time. Cataloger Dr. Getatchew Haile received a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his life’s work on the collection, publishing a 10-volume EMML catalog with William Macomber between 1975 and 1993. Also in HMML’s microfilm collections are scans of non-EMML material from the UNESCO and Ernst Hammerschmidt Tanasee projects of the 1960s. Born-digital work in the 21st century has focused on collections that were not included in the EMML, notably manuscripts from the 15th-century monastery of Gunda Gundē (over 200 manuscripts photographed with Michael Gervers and Ewa Bailicka-Witakowska in 2006), Agwaxa Monastery (photographed by the same team in 2007), and the famed two-volume Abba Garima Gospels from the monastery of Endā Abbā Garimā (photographed in 2013)—all in Tigray Province. The collection also includes manuscripts from a recent collaboration with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; the Ethiopian Manuscript Digital Archive (EMDA); manuscript images from Steve Delamarter's Ethiopian Manuscript Image Project (EMIP); and Islamic materials of Harar provided by the Sherif Harar City Museum.

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