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An Introduction to Polynesian Anthropology
Surveys of Museums
Surveys of Museums
The early explorers and their crews collected curios and souvenirs from the various Pacific islands which they visited. Such articles furnish valuable information concerning the arts and crafts which existed before material changes were effected through foreign impact. Probably most of these articles have found their way into museums and private collections where they may be studied, once their location is known. It is necessary, therefore, to follow up the field surveys in Polynesia by a survey of the museums in Europe, America, and elsewhere.
The finest collection of Polynesian artifacts is in the British Museum. I studied there for three months and did not get through the examination of all the collection, which includes artifacts collected on the voyages of Cook, Van-page 60couver, Beechey, and others. It also includes the wonderful collection accumulated by the London Missionary Society from the Society, Cook, and Austral Islands. Material collected on Cook's voyages is to be found in Vienna, Florence, and elsewhere. The collection made by Joseph Banks on Cook's first voyage is in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford; Anders Sparrman's collection, made on Cook's second voyage, is in the Royal Swedish Museum, Stockholm; John Webber's collection, made on Cook's third voyage, is in the Bern Museum, Switzerland. It would be fascinating as well as valuable to track down the material brought back by the other early voyagers to the countries to which they returned. One wonders whether anything besides journals and charts can be traced back to the Spaniards, Mendana, Quiros, Maurelle, and Boenechea; to the Dutchmen, Le Maire, Schouten, Tasman, and Roggeveen; and so on to the British, French, and Russian voyagers who visited the Polynesian area. There is valuable material in Petrograd, Madrid, and the cities of Europe and Britain, and good material is to be found in the United States. Material collected by the whaling ships of New England in the early part of the nineteenth century is preserved in the Peabody Museums of Salem and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Collections made on the Wilkes Expedition are in the National Museum, Washington, and in the Philadelphia Academy of Science. Good local material is preserved in New Zealand museums and Bishop Museum.
The difficulty in making a thorough survey of museums is that it requires the services of an expert who can identify Polynesian artifacts by their structure, not by their museum labels. A survey requires an examination of material labeled as Polynesian and the material in other locality cases as well, because there are frequent misplacements. Such a survey would not only reveal where valuable material is located, but would help museums to correct errors in identifications.
The following visits to European museums, made by members of the Museum staff, may be regarded as reconnaissance visits which indicate the need for sufficient time to be devoted to the making of more complete records.
W. T. Brigham, Director (1896)
Dr. Brigham left Honolulu on January 28, 1896, and sailed for Europe via Australia. In Australia, he visited the museums of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Albany. On the European continent, he studied the Pacific material in the museums at Naples, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Leiden, Brussels, Berne, and Paris; in England at London, Cambridge, and Oxford; and in the United States at Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Boston, Salem, Chicago, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. His report with illustrations of the rarer and more striking artifacts in various museums was published by Bishop Museum as Occasional Papers, I, 1, 1898.
Kenneth P. Emory, Ethnologist (1926)
Mr. Emory, after making an archaeological survey of the Society Islands, went to Europe to study Polynesian artifacts in European museums. He visited the Continental museums at Paris, Rome, Berne, and Neuchâtel; the English museums at London, Cambridge, and Oxford; and American museums at Cambridge, Salem, New Haven, New York, and Chicago. He obtained a large number of photographs and took careful notes of the more interesting material.
Robert P. Lewis, Associate in Ethnology (1926-1935)
A lover of travel and provided with independent means, Mr. Lewis did fine work for the Museum in searching the museums of Europe and America for information about Hawaiian feather garments, thus earning the sobriquet of "Feather Cloak Lewis." He examined the material in Russia, and in Spain he located three cloaks, four capes, and seven helmets. In England, the cape given by Kamehameha II to Captain Starbuck was presented by his family to Mr. Lewis to convey to Bishop Museum as a gift to the people of Hawaii. A specimen of later work in the form of a peacock-feather cape was presented by Captain A. W. F. Fuller to the Museum through Mr. Lewis. The museums visited are too numerous to mention, suffice it to say that Mr. Lewis located feather capes and cloaks in no fewer than 80 collections in Europe. His photographs, drawings and notes have been incorporated into the Museum's photograph catalog. A fuller description of his work is to be found in his obituary notice in the Report of the Director of Bishop Museum for 1935 (pp. 37-39).
Peter H. Buck, Bishop Museum Visiting Professor to Yale University (1933)
In the vacation between two terms at Yale, I visited Europe to study the Polynesian material in museums, concentrating on a detailed examination of the priceless collection in the British Museum. With the cooperation of the late Captain J. A. Joyce and his staff in the ethnographical department, the various artifacts were removed from their cases, photographed with a Leica camera, and notes made on the technical details. The fine private collection of Captain A. W. F. Fuller was also studied in detail, and the unique collection of W. O. Oldman was examined. Visits were made to the Horniman Museum (Forest Hill), the Chiselhurst Museum (owned by the late H. G. Beasley), Pitt-Rivers Museum (Oxford), Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge) and the museums at Bristol, Manchester and Liverpool. During a 20-day trip on the continent, the Polynesian collections were examined in the museums at Leipzig, Dresden, Vienna, Munich, Basle, Berne, Paris, and Boulogne. Just on a thousand photographs of Polynesian artifacts were taken, and these, with nu-page 62merous photographs taken in the United States at Salem, Cambridge, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, have been added to the Bishop Museum photograph catalog. For assistance in the project, I am under obligation to the National Research Council for a grant-in-aid.
Margaret Tltcomb, Librarian (1937)
Margaret Titcomb, after being coached by the ethnologists of Bishop Museum, searched a number of European museums during a visit on sabbatical leave. She paid particular attention to museums which had not been visited previously by members of the Bishop Museum staff, with good results. At Zurich, she located a collection made by Dr. Horner, who was astronomer with the Krusenstern Expedition of 1803-1806. At Caen, France, and at La Rochelle, material collected by Dumont d'Urville was seen. The unique fourlegged image of the Mangarevan god Tu was located in Rome. Some of the other museums visited were at Budapest, Geneva, Chambery, Florence, Brest, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Lille, Douai, and Braine-le-Comte. Photographs and notes taken on the tour were incorporated into the Museum's photograph catalog.
Kenneth P. Emory, Ethnologist (1940-1941)
During a year at the Yale Graduate School, Mr. Emory, was given the project of adding to the Museum photograph catalog by completing a photograph study of the material at the Peabody Museums at Salem and Cambridge and making as complete a survey as possible of the Wilkes Expedition collection at the National Museum, Washington, and of the collection in the Museum of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Much new material was brought to light and the Museum photograph catalog was considerably enlarged.