First published in 2001 by Berg Publishers
Published 2020 by Routledge
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Chris Gosden and Chantal Knowles 2001
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ISBN 13: 978-1-859-73403-2 (hbk)
This project represents a form of multi-sited ethnography, as it was carried out in four museums and various archives. We have been amazed at the generosity with which our requests to work on collections for several weeks at a time were received. The project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust (F/756/A) to whom we are extremely grateful as this enabled both of us to visit all the collections described and analysed here and to carry out the writing up. In addition the British Academy (SS-2043/APN7292) gave Chris Gosden a personal grant which enabled us to follow up J.A. Todds collection once it came to light after the project was underway.
In many ways this project has derived out of two different areas of work and inspiration. The first is the Pitt Rivers Museum, where there is so much new thought about approaching museum collections and material culture in general. This project is one outcome of these conversations. The second is the informal network of New Britain scholars who have such a depth of knowledge and abiding interest in the area: Jim Specht, Glenn Summerhayes, Christina Pavlides and Robin Torrence have all influenced our work in fundamental ways.
In each of the four museums in which we worked we were made welcome and were given constant attention and help from all members of staff, making our stays enjoyable and the work very productive. At the Pitt Rivers Museum we would particularly like to thank, Jeremy Coote, Marina de Alarcon, Julia Nicholson and Alison Petch for their help and guidance with the object collections and documentation, Elizabeth Edwards, Emma Dean, Chris Morton, and Gwyneira Isaac for their help with the Manuscript and Photograph collections. In the Field Museum, Chicago we particularly thank John Terrell, Janice Klein and Wil Grewe-Mullins as well as the rest of the Curatorial and administrative staff. A particular thanks must go to Rob Welsch, now based at Dartmouth University, whose work on Lewis made our task so much easier. In Basel Museum der Kulturen, particular thanks are due to Christian Kaufmann, Antje Denner, and Sylvia Ohnemus. In Sydney at the Australian Museum expert assistance and guidance was received from Jim Specht, Liz Bonshek and Nan Goodsell.
Much of the background detail to the collectors and the regions colonial history was gathered in archives across the globe. In addition, information on small West New Britain collections was received from many museums. Anita Herle and Gillian Crowther at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Godfrey Waller at Cambridge University Library Archives. Dorota Starzecka and Jill Hassell at the British Museum Department of Ethnography, formerly the Museum of Mankind. Nynke Dorhout, and Barbara Isaac at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Tom Harding for his researches into the life and career of J. A. Todd, now deposited with the Australian Museum. The staff at SOAS who gave us access to the London Missionary Society archives. Tom Maschio for discussing contemporary material culture from the region. Alan Davies at the State Library of New South Wales for giving us access to and assistance with the H.L. Downing collection of photographs held there and for putting us in touch with his daughter, Mrs Diana Mcleish who looked after Jim Specht and the two of us for lunch one day as we pored over her fathers diaries, notebooks and photographs.
While in Australia we visited many archives and met many people who were willing to share their expertise and knowledge with us. Monica Wehner and Euan Maidment at the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. We are also grateful to the Division of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies who awarded us visiting fellowships and we thank Atholl Anderson for arranging these. Hank Nelson provided us with expert advice on how to approach the documentary evidence on New Guinea between the wars. Merilyn Minnell gave us great help with trawling through colonial records at the National Archives of Australia. Staff at the Australian War Memorial, the National Library of Australia and the library at ANU all gave kind support.
In Canberra and Sydney the hospitality of Jim and Jill Allen, Howard Morphy, Glen Summerhayes, Jim Specht, and Katie and Bryan Roach who looked after us, but also contributed much through conversation and advice. In West New Britain John Namuno, at the West New Britain Cultural Centre supported and encouraged us. We also thank Anne Chowning, Philip Dark, Dorothy and David Counts, Tristan Arbousse-Bastide, Christin Kocher-Schmid, Max Quanchi and Tobias Sperlich.
This project involved a lot of administration and would not have been possible without the support and help of all the staff at the Pitt Rivers Museum, not least Sue Brooks and Julia Cousins for helping to administer the grant. Schuyler Jones and Mike OHanlon, the former and current directors, the conservation department Birgitte Speake, Lorraine Rostant and Emma Hook and the technical services Bob Rivers, John Simmons, and Andy Munsch. Maria Economou, Sandra Dudley and Haas Ezzet for their IT support. Malcolm Osman for his continuing work on the archival photographic material and for producing new images relating to the collections, Mark Dickerson for his ability to discover copies of books and papers relating to our work, and Norman Weller who helped in numerous ways. The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum, were enthusiastic in their support of the aims of the project.
The various drafts of this manuscript were read by and commented on by the following people and we are grateful for the improvements that were made due to their advice, those faults that remain being entirely our own. Thanks are due to Jeremy Coote, Elizabeth Edwards, Mike OHanlon, Christina Pavlides, Alison Petch, Gwyneira Isaac, Glenn Summerhayes, Ian Knowles, Rob Welsch, Ian Lilley, Robin Torrence and Peter White. Special thanks go to Jim Specht who read so much of the manuscript in its final stages and made a crucial set of comments on both facts and theory. We are very grateful to Sven Wair for copy editing and Fran Knight for compiling the index. Kathryn Earle at Berg Press has been encouraging and supportive throughout.
