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Cuming Museum Collections

ETHNOGRAPHIC

COLLECTION

Southwark Culture, Libraries, Learning and Leisure

www.southwark.gov.uk/cumingmuseum

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The Cuming Museum The Old Town Hall 151 Walworth Road London SE17 1RY Phone: 020 7525 2332 Fax: 020 7525 2345

Email: cuming.museum@southwark.gov.uk Cuming Museum web page: www.southwark.gov.uk/cumingmuseum Cuming collection online: www.southwarkcollections.org.uk

Text by Bryn Hyacinth May 2006

All text and images copyright of Southwark Council

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THE ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION OF THE

CUMING MUSEUM

The Cuming Museum is the home of the worldwide collection of the Cuming Family and the museum of Southwark’s history. It houses a diverse collection that includes archaeology, social history and natural history. A mix of permanent and changing exhibitions tells the story of Southwark, from Roman times to the diverse communities of today. To find out more about the Cuming Museum see the web page: www.southwark.gov.uk/cumingmuseum.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4

The history of the Cuming ethnographic collection 9

Early journeys of exploration 18

The Cuming Museum and the ethnographic collection from 1906 23

Making the collection relevant today 27

Engraving from a drawing by William Hodges, artist on the second voyage. One

of series of portraits made of people from the different places visited by Cook.

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INTRODUCTION

The Cuming Museum’s worldwide ethnographic collection is a special resource housed in the Borough of Southwark in South East London. It was the result of over 100 years of collecting by father and son, Richard and Henry Syer Cuming. They were able to acquire many beautiful and significant objects at a time when a gentleman collector of modest means living in London could purchase objects from around the world.

The Cuming’s ethnographic collection was originally both its centre and one of its highlights. When it was packed away for the Second World War it would have counted as among one of the most important in the UK. Unfortunately, encouraged by the policies of the Museums Association in the 1950s, and following their own interests in local archaeology, the librarians and later the keepers of the collection, from the late 1940s through to the 1970s, sold, lost, or placed out on ‘permanent loan’ the greater part of the collection. A small residue was left in the museum stores.1

Work began in 1997 to regulate the loans and to locate and catalogue the remaining collection in the Cuming Museum stores. With the return of some of the collection from 2002 onwards, and the identification of important objects in the stores, the real significance of the Cuming ethnographic collection has begun to be recognised. It has provided a better picture overall of the collection

so that serious research can now be undertaken into its significance and history. The following article summarises the results of the preliminary research on the history and sources of the collection to date.2 Description of the collection

The Cuming ethnographic collection consists of late 18th and early 19th century Native North American, Amazonian, African (especially South African), South Pacific and Australian objects. The Cuming family also bought a sizeable collection from China and Japan, most of it contemporary, with a few antique and ancient items. There is also material from Russia, parts of Europe, the Indian Sub-continent including an interesting collection of objects from Sri Lanka, the Near East (especially Turkey and Syria) and a small number of objects from Central and South America. There are also objects from South East Asia and Indonesia. There is also an interesting collection of objects connected with folklore and superstition from County Cork, Ireland, dated 1840. The Cumings were also interested in collecting English popular or folk art and objects relating to English folk traditions and superstitions.

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OCEANIA

Statue or idol from Samoa, wood stained black. Described by Richard Cuming in the handwritten manuscript catalogue as ‘having the appearance of

being of great antiquity’.

Maori Taiaha or staves from New Zealand, Cuming

Collection and Phillips Bequest.

Provision hook from Tonga. This was used to hang food to prevent rats gaining access to

food stores.

Maori carved wooden hand club,

New Zealand, circa 1800.

Maori carved whalebone nose

flute, New Zealand, circa 1800.

Section of decorated barkcloth from Samoa, Captain Wilson, late 18

th

century.

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ASIA

Carved and painted figurine of a Sinhalese

woman from Sri Lanka.

Porcelain Kylin figure from China,

mid 19th Century.

Painted wooden mask

from Sri Lanka.

Bound foot shoe,

China.

Shale statuette of Hindu gods

Mahadeva (Shiva) and Parvati, India.

Carved ivory chess piece, made for the European market, , China, 18

th century.

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AFRICA

Afro-Portuguese ivory sword hilt, probably from Benin, 16

th century,

produced for the European market.

Zulu carved drinking vessel, South African

Association, 1834-36.

Basket, South African

Association, 1834-36.

Hat made of giraffe hair, South African Association,

1834-36.

Asante squeeze drum from

Ghana. Yoruba carved wooden

figure from Nigeria.

Snuff containers made of gourds, South African

Association, 1834-36.

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THE AMERICAS

Araapo or gourd bowls, painted. From the

Guiana Exhibition, Schomburgk collection.

Pre Colombian painted tripod vessel,

Mexico .

Snow goggles and eye shade of wood, from the sale of objects collected by Frederic Beechey in his expedition with Sir John Franklin to the Bering

Straight in the ship the "Blossom" in 1825..

Model of Greenland man in his Kayak, formed of wood covered with seal skin, tipped with bone.

Dance mask made of painted wood, Nishga'a Tsimpshian, North West Coast , Canada.

Playing card case of bark and felt decorated with porcupine quills or

dyed moose hair, Canada.

Model canoe made of painted wood, Nishga'a Tsimpshian, North West Coast , Canada.

Box made of birch bark ornamented with

dyed porcupine quills, Canada.

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THE HISTORY OF THE CUMING ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

Richard Cuming and the Leverian Museum

In 1806 Richard Cuming, a young man of 29, attended every day of the 65-day sale of the Leverian Museum, held a mile or two from where he and his family lived on the Walworth Road.

The Leverian Museum housed the vast collection of Sir Ashton Lever which he had moved from his house at Alkrington Hall, Manchester to London in 1775 when the pressures of maintaining a very popular visitor attraction in his own home became too much for him. Lever’s collection included objects gathered on Captain Cook’s second and third voyages. This South Pacific collection was of immense importance in providing a material record of cultures which would shortly be irrevocably transformed through contact with European cultures.

Lever’s first museum the Holophusican, was in Leicester House in Leicester Square, London. It contained a room dedicated to his friend and the patron of Cook’s voyages, Lord Sandwich. After the museum ran into financial difficulties it was sold by lottery in 1786 to Mr James Parkinson. It was moved to a purpose-built building called the Rotunda on Albion Street which was in a new development area south of Blackfriars Bridge.

Engraved plate from the ‘Companion to the Leverian Museum’ showing the central domed gallery or

Rotunda displaying the natural history collection.

Portrait of Richard Cuming in the uniform of the Surrey Volunteers, a local unit of volunteer soldiers, formed in response to the threat of imminent invasion during the Napoleonic Wars.

By his brother John Brompton Cuming.

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The museum would have been a short walk from the Cuming family home on the Walworth Road. Given the range of interests of the young Richard Cuming one can imagine him spending many hours in the museum studying the displays of natural history and ‘Artificial Curiosities’.

By 1806 the Leverian Museum

had ceased to be profitable and the entire contents were offered for sale by auction. Such was Richard Cuming’s interest that he attended every day of the sale of the Leverian Museum and annotated his copy of the auction catalogue with the details of the purchases. Agents buying for important collectors, including many crowned heads of Europe, also attended the sale of over 7800 lots. The Leverian Museum thus became a significant source of early museum collections in this country and

abroad. The copy of the sale catalogue annotated by Richard Cuming is itself an important document for researching the history of late 18th to early 19th century collections.3

It has previously been held that Richard Cuming bought much more extensively at the Leverian Museum auction then he actually did. The total number of lots he purchased was 58, of which only 9 items are ethnographic. These include a Hawaiian feathered wickerwork helmet, which does not occur again in any catalogue of the collection.4

The pattern of Richard and his son, Henry Syer Cuming’s, later collecting is interesting. The notes in their catalogue show that they intentionally acquired from collections that had their origin with the Leverian Museum, suggesting that Richard never lost his interest in the museum. .

Tabooing wand from Hawaii. Collected on Captain Cook’s second journey to the South

Pacific, from the Leverian Museum.

Gourd bottle from Hawaii, collected on Captain Cook’s second journey to the South Pacific, from

the Leverian Museum.

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Richard Cuming’s collecting from 1806 Between 1806 and 1850 Richard and his son Henry Syer Cuming purchased from a variety of sources. They bought from auction houses such as Christies and Stevens. Some of the individuals from whom they acquired objects were important collectors in their own right and included J.J.A. Fillingham who was connected to the sale of the Leverian museum 5. Others were gentleman collectors with their own, private museums such as Henry Rhodes, Mr Charles Blackett, Mr Thomas Everill, and Thomas Dawson Esq.

One sale he attended was of the collection of the Museum of the Bavarian Princess Christina of Waldeck and Pyrmont, who may be identified as Princess and Countess Palantine Christiane Henriette of Pfalz-Zweiberücken-Birkenfeld. Her collection probably dates from as early as the first half of the 18th century. 6

Sometime before 1837 his son, Henry Syer Cuming, began an inventory of his father’s collection, now known as the Cuming handwritten manuscript catalogue. It consists of small loose pages written in a very small hand. Evidently there are pages missing which can be seen by the lack of certain groups of objects, such as bows and arrows.

Objects that Richard Cuming acquired before 1837 are merely listed with a description and a provenance. Later Henry included

more detail, although he did not always give the source of his acquisitions. Where details are given it is possible to link objects to collections and sales that can eventually be traced back to Lever’s collection.

Page from Henry Cuming’s handwritten

manuscript catalogue.

Carved calabash bowl with scenes of ships, carved by a person of African origin, Surinam, late 16

th, early

17th century. From the collection of Princess Christina

of Waldeck.

Tamau headdress from Tahiti, bought from R. Scarr of London Docks, possibly a dealer buying objects from

sailors returning to London from whaling journeys.

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By 1841, when the bulk of the

Cuming’s handwritten catalogue was completed, thye had amassed a huge collection including a large amount of ethnographic material. By the end of his life Richard and Henry’s collection filled the family home. It was all neatly labelled by Henry, if not thoroughly catalogued. The Cuming Museum at 3 Deans Row, Walworth

Richard and Henry Cuming were evidently very proud of their collection. Henry’s drawing entitled ‘Cuming Museum’ shows one of the rooms at 3 Deans Row, Walworth with objects and cabinets arranged around the fireplace. Some of the objects in the drawing can be identified in the collection today. There is a catalogue record for a visitor’s book for the ‘Cuming Museum’ which would indicate that it was open to viewers, probably by appointment.

Demonstrating the family commitment to ethnography, Richard

Cuming and Henry Syer Cuming were members of the Ethnological Society. Henry Syer Cuming wrote letters between 1842 and 1845 to various influential figures campaigning for the establishment of a ‘National Museum of Economic Ethnology’.7

An unusual Maori Nguru or nose-flute, made of the end of a gourd, probably 18

th century, Thomas

Everill’s collection, possibly from Dick’s collection.

(Left): photograph of the interior of a room at 63 Kennington Park Road where the collection was displayed and (below) Henry Cuming’s illustration of a room in the earlier family

home at 3 Deans Row, Walworth.

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Objects from the Leverian Museum The Nootka Sound bracelet

In the 1970’s a bracelet was discovered in a packing chest containing rubble and objects cleared after the museum was hit by a bomb during Second World War. The handwritten label pasted to the inside identifies it as originating from the Leverian Museum. A recent comparison with a sketch by Sarah Stone’s confirmed this as the same object. Sarah Stone was a watercolour painter who was commissioned by Sir Ashton Lever in 1783 to record his collection. The detailed colour sketches in her notebooks enable visual comparisons with objects described as having come from the Leverian Museum. (Force and Force 1968)

Adrienne Kaeppler noted the bracelet as lost when researching the catalogue of Cook voyage artefacts for the exhibition ‘Artificial Curiosities’ in 1978. (Kaeppler, 1978)

Whalebone bracelet inlaid with dentalium shell.

Illustration of the bracelet by Sarah Stone.

Courtesy of the Bishop Museum, Honolulu.

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The Hawaiian Feather Cape

The most magnificent object to have survived from Richard Cuming’s original collection is a Hawaiian feathered short tippet or shoulder cape of green-black feathers, decorated with red and yellow feathers from the I’iwi and O’o birds. A number of cloaks were brought back from the Cook’s third voyage, some of which were owned personally by Cook. Many were destroyed or lost over the years. That the cape in the Cuming collection has survived in such good condition is little short of miraculous. The story of the cape is representative of many of the objects dispersed from the Leverian Museum.

Sarah Stone illustrated the cape providing further proof that the cape came from the Leverian Museum. During the sale of the Leverian Museum in 1806 the cape went up for auction on day 48, 30 June, lot 5642 and was purchased by Mr P. Dick.

The cape then reappeared during the sale in Bullock’s Museum, in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly on 27 February 1821 of the collection of Mr P. Dick Esq. of Sloane Street. The Egyptian Hall, with its Egyptian style facade was a popular landmark and venue for exhibitions and shows during the 19th century.

The entry at the sale for the cape

is: Day 2, Lot 25, ‘A handsome scarlet, yellow and black feather cloak, from the Sandwich Isles’. Mr Thomas Everill bought the cape along with a number of other objects. On his decease his private museum at Mount Row, Lambeth was sold on 16 September 1841, and Richard Cuming purchased the cape along with 25 other objects. The cape is presently on display in the new permanent Cuming gallery.

Illustration of the cape by Sarah Stone. Courtesy Bishop

Museum, Honolulu.

The Egyptian style façade of Bullock’s Museum,

Piccadilly.

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The Cree Dolls A pair of Cree dolls were on

display in the Leverian Museum and appear in the sale catalogue as Lot 3645, ‘Two small figures dressed in the costume of the N American Indians’. According to Richard Cuming’s annotation these were bought for 18 shillings by Mr Atkinson.

They later appear on sale at the auction of Mr P. Dick Esq.’s collection and the entry for the dolls is: Day 2, Lot 90 ‘A Male and Female figure, in the costume of North American Indians, formally in the Leverian Museum'. There is no note of the buyer in the available catalogue.

The dolls were eventually presented to the Cumings by a G Bonner Esq on February 24 1842. The donor was the son of a local artist and engraver and the Bonner family were one of the local families that were part of the Cuming family’s circle of friends in the Newington area. It is not known if Mr Bonner senior bought them at the sale of Dick’s Museum or acquired them from another collector. This is a good example of the way objects from what was originally a vast collection held in the Leverian Museum circulated among London collectors during the 19th century. Significance Of The Dolls

The dolls are very rare and provide a unique opportunity in the study of North American Cree cultural history. Their costume is an exact replica of that worn by Cree women in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The dolls were probably either made as a teaching aid for the instruction of girls about Cree identity or as important presentation pieces. 8

Detail of a bag from one

of the Cree dolls.

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Collecting in South London 1800-1850

The period that Richard and Henry Cuming were acquiring their collection was a favourable time for collecting in London. The sales of large collections such as Lever’s resulted in objects circulating among collectors, many being sold on time and time again. In Surrey (today’s South East London) there were gentleman collectors such as Thomas Everill and Richard Cuming with ‘museums’ in their homes, and other small, short-lived museums open to the public. The Surrey Museum

An example of this is the ‘Surrey Museum’, which was located in Walworth near to where Richard Cuming lived. This museum was connected with Surrey Zoological Gardens, which opened in 1831 and boasted a zoo to rival Regents Park. The Surrey Museum’s catalogue of 1836 lists mainly birds as its main exhibit but at the end states ‘In this room will also be found a great variety of .…Artificial Curiosities from the South Seas’. Where did this collection from the South Seas mentioned in the catalogue originate?

The Surrey Museum was sold by auction by the auctioneers Stevens in July 1836. Richard Cuming’s sale receipt shows he bought Egyptian, Etruscan and Greek objects. He also acquired a large amount of natural

history from the Surrey Museum, probably after the sale concluded, and possibly some of the South Pacific material. Camberwell Fair

Circulating in the Camberwell area was another mysterious collection. The book The Shows of London, says the following: ‘As late as 1829 a portion of the Leverian collection was exhibited at Camberwell Fair by an agent for ‘a society of Gentlemen.’ ‘Several commodious caravans’ were advertised as holding 1600 cases of stuffed bird alone, as well as twenty serpents, an eleven foot swordfish, the usual assortment of fossils and shells and ‘the heads of two chieftain warriors from the South-Pacific’. (Altick, 1978)

A letter written by Henry Cuming describes his father’s recollection of visiting this show and recognising some of the exhibits from the earlier Leverian Museum displays.9 Richard

Camberwell Fair in the mid 19th century.

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Cuming would have been sure to have acquired material from this ‘show’ if it was sold locally (and cheaply). The Emporium of Nicknacks & Bric-a-Bracks, Walworth

Henry Cuming’s papers include an essay describing a local shop in Walworth that he compares to Charles Dickens’ ‘Old Curiosity Shop’. ‘The long low Window with its small panes of thick glass, crowded from bottom to top with curious objects of all sorts and sizes; antique Pottery, Glass, China, old Wood Carvings, South-Sea Necklaces, Fish-hooks, Boxes, & decorated Gourds, ……, & a host of other matters, all bundled together in endless confusion, & mantled with venerable dust & dirt. On the left hand (of) this dismal den were a few rickety Cabinets upon which were piled up objects that were too cumbersome to display in the Window, & some of which had been brought to the Country by our great Navigator Captain Cook’.

The shop had been opened in 1810 by Thomas Henry White. On his death in 1865 the stock was sold by the auctioneers Stevens. Richard Cuming’s family members occasionally bought him objects as gifts, which may well have been purchased at this shop.

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EARLY JOURNEYS OF EXPLORATION AND THE CUMING

ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

Bechuana bead necklace from the South African Association exhibition. The wooden pendant is

a whistle.

Sh Shows and exhibitions from around the world

London was the venue for shows and entertainments that exhibited people and performances from far away countries. There were also exhibitions of material from exploratory journeys. When they closed these shows would frequently sell the objects that accompanied the re-creations and exhibits.

South African Association Exhibition, 1837

The ‘South African Association’

exhibited a large collection of Bechuana and Zulu objects at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly in 1837. Richard Cuming bought at least 120 objects from the sale of the exhibition. The collection was formed by Dr Andrew Smith, the first Superintendent of the South African

Museum, Cape Town during an expedition of 1834 – 1836 to the interior of South Africa. When Dr Smith returned to England in 1837 the collection was exhibited and sold to defray the expenses of his travels, and to repay the ‘The Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa’ that had funded him.

Exhibition of modern Mexico at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly,

1824.

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George Catlin’s ‘Indian Gallery’ 1839

An entry in the Cuming manuscript catalogue refers to three Native North American objects, which probably were sold from the collection of artefacts included in George Catlin’s ‘Indian Gallery’ that came to London in 1839 from an unsuccessful tour of American cities. George Catlin is best known for the paintings made of Native North American tribes between 1830 and 1836. While in London he had to sell off parts of his show at intervals in order to maintain his large entourage, which included his family and a group of Objiwe and Iowa performers.

The objects include a full-length whale gut parka from Alaska, although Catlin did not reach as far as Canada or the Arctic on his travels. He is known to have bought from other London collectors to add to his exhibition. There is also a letter from Catlin to Cuming in reply to a request for information regarding an alligator leg bag that Cuming had acquired and a handbill for Catlin’s London show with the date recorded by Richard Cuming.

Guiana Exhibition of Robert Schomburgk, 1840

The explorer Robert Schomburgk collected ethnographic material during an expedition sponsored by the Royal Geographic Society to explore what is now British Guyana in 1834-1839. He explored the upper Guyana River basin, collected specimens and surveyed the geography. The Schomburgk material comprises an important record of South American Tropical Lowland material culture. (Riviere (ed.) 2006)

Handbill for Catlin’s

Exhibition.

Handbill for the Guiana Exhibition.

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On his return to England Schomburgk exhibited his collection from Guyana at the Cosmorama on Regent Street in 1840. The collection was auctioned and according to the Cuming handwritten manuscript Richard and Henry Cuming purchased at least 50 objects, many of which still exist. There is a letter from Schomburgk to Cuming in reply to his enquiry concerning some of the objects he had bought. Richard Cuming cut the descriptions out from alternative pages of the exhibition catalogue to use as labels for the objects. Early journeys of exploration

Richard Cuming’s collection contains parts of collections made during pioneering exploratory journeys of the late 18th and early 19th century, including Captain Cook’s second and third journeys, Captain Vancouver, and Mr George Bennett, of the London Missionary Society. This ethnography linked with famous explorers and their voyages is invaluable for researching cultures at

a fixed time in history, during the early contact period.

Cuming Cook voyage objects identified by Adrienne Kaeppler were loaned to the Bishop Museum Honolulu’s exhibition ‘Artificial Curiosities’ in 1978, and appear in the catalogue of the same title, and to the Vancouver Centennial Museum’s 1978 exhibition ‘Discovery 1778’. (Kaeppler, 1978) The missionary voyage of The Duff

The Reverend J. J. Curling was the grandson of Captain Wilson of York Street Chapel, Walworth who commanded the Duff, the first missionary journey in 1796 to Tahiti, Tonga, and Hawaii on behalf of the newly formed London Missionary Society. The objects donated by Reverend Curling in 1906 were inherited from his grandfather and possibly from other family members stationed in the Pacific during the 19th century. This collection includes garments and pieces of tapa cloth,

Girl’s beaded apron, Schomburgk collection.

Stool, from the Guiana Exhibition, Schomburgk

collection.

Detail from a Tahitian barkcloth poncho, collected

by Captain Wilson.

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some very beautifully decorated and in very good condition.

Aboriginal material from ‘New Holland’

One group of objects that merit further research is the Cuming collection of Aboriginal material from Australia. This collection includes objects described as being from ‘New Holland’, a term frequently used to describe Australia as a whole and particularly New South Wales which became obsolete after 1820. There is little material from the early years of the colony of New South Wales and objects collected before the mid 1800s with a confirmed provenance are not very common. (Megaw, 1978) Material from Sudan

The Cuming handwritten manuscript contains entries for around 33 objects described variously as coming from Senner, Bahr el Abaid or Western Nile area, Dongola, Kordofan, Denka, and Tisheet, places located in West Sudan. These entries name a Mohamed Hamed Safir (or Safer) from Sheygia, Nubia, as presenting various objects to Richard Cuming between 1838 and 1849, originating from Egypt and the areas of Sudan mentioned previously. On one of the object labels Richard Cuming described Safir as a friend and he added a lock of Safir’s hair to his natural history collection. In this period there was a limited European presence in Sudan and therefore

Safir was the likely source of all the objects from the Sudan in Cuming’s collection.

Wilhelm Gueinzius, the naturalist

Wilhelm Gueinzius was born in Trotha, Germany, in 1815, and died in 1874 in Durban (South Africa). He was sent to South Africa to collect natural history for the Leipzig Zoological Museum. While in South Africa Gueinzius lived among the Zulu and the Richard Cuming acquired 18 mainly Zulu objects collected by him between 1845 and 1848. It is not known how the objects found their way to London from South Africa, as Gueinzius did not return to Europe.

Zulu camel-thorn wood stool. Collected by Gueinzius in

South Africa.

Hegeb or charm, worn on the upper arm, containing a written extract from

the Koran. Sudan.

Aboriginal knife with an obsidian blade set into gum, Western Australia.

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Captain Cook’s voyages Captain Cook’s three voyages are famous not only for the high scientific achievement associated with them but for the interesting human story of the encounters between two very different cultures. This story is told in the journals of Cook and the officers and scientists that accompanied him.

On islands such as Hawaii, where Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to make contact, many objects were presented as gifts. The three Cuming Hawaiian objects; the gourd, cape and tabooing wand were all high-status objects that would have been presented as gifts.

The collections made on Captain Cook’s voyages excited much admiration and interest when they arrived back in England.

Objects that can be positively identified as having been collected during Cook’s three voyages are important for a number of reasons. Today the study of pre-contact cultures of the South Pacific relies on the existing collections that can be identified with Cook’s voyages.

The changes in the material

culture of the South Pacific that took place as a result of contact with Europeans were in some cases dramatic and devastating.

The Cuming Museum’s Cook objects made in the 18th century are a precious cultural heritage that can contribute to the ethnic and cultural heritage for Pacific Islanders today.

Illustrated plate from the Atlas to Cook’s third voyage, from a drawing by John

Webber.

Captain James Cook

Two clubs from Tonga. Richard Cuming identified these as collected

by Captain Cook.

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The Cuming Museum 1906 – 1940 When the Cuming family collection

was left by Henry Cuming to the people of the parish of St Mary Newington (now the Borough of Southwark) his bequest included funds for the building of a gallery to house the collection and to pay for the salary of a curator. One was never appointed and from 1906 the museum was looked after by the librarians of St Mary Newington Library. In the 1920s the librarians began an inventory of the objects as they appeared on display. A large amount of material was not displayed and was therefore not catalogued until after the Second World War.

THE CUMING MUSEUM AND THE ETHNOGRAPHIC

COLLECTION FROM 1906

Views of the Cuming Museum in the 1920s. The cases were arranged by the type of classification system that can still be seen in the Pitt Rivers

Museum, Oxford.

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After the opening of the Cuming Museum at the Newington Library in 1906 many local donors brought small collections to the museum which included objects collected during travels and military or civil service abroad.

The three major bequests to the museum, Reverend J. J. Curling 1906 Phillips 1914, and Edward Lovett 1916, added considerably to the Cuming ethnographic collection. Some of the objects from Phillips’ collection appear to be very old. He may have been acquiring from collections that had already been circulating in London in the first half of the 19th century.

The museum also received a small but interesting group of Inuit, Papuan and Native North American objects from Lovett and the ‘London Superstitions’ collection, which was displayed immediately and generated much interest. Losses to the collection, 1940 – 1958

In 1941 an incendiary bomb came through the roof of the Cuming Museum. Later the loss of many significant ethnographic and especially Polynesian objects would be put down to the effects of fire but no list of losses or report on the fire exists. 9 There is reason to believe that most of the collection had been packed away for safekeeping before hit and there are only a small number of smoke damaged objects. The

collection remained in storage until the damage to the building could be rectified at the end of the 1950s. In the meantime the collection was still in the care of the librarians. It was during this period that more serious losses to the Cuming ethnographic collection appear to have occurred.

During the 1940s the collector Ken Webster approached the Borough Librarians. Apparently he was representing himself as collecting on behalf of the New Zealand government and was also collecting on his own behalf.

A response to his request to acquire Cuming objects was recorded in the Borough Council’s Minute Book and he was very clearly informed that the terms of the Cuming Bequest prohibited the dispersal of the collection.

On what understanding the Borough Librarians subsequently conducted their transaction with Webster is not now known and there is no record of the number of objects acquired by him. He acquired many important Hawaiian objects and most of the Maori material in the inventory is untraceable now.

In 1948 the collector James Hooper acquired ex-Cuming material from Mr Webster, including a drum acquired by Richard Cuming from Mr T Everill, now in the British Museum, and a Hawaiian figurine, at the St Louis Art Museum.11

Objects from Lovett’s collection of London Superstitions. Left; a sheep’s heart studded with nails and right; an infants caul sewn into a cloth bag, worn as a protection against

drowning.

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During this period, right up until the

reopening of the museum in 1959, other collectors are known to have approached the Librarians offering to take the ethnography off their hands. Cuming ethnographic objects have appeared at auction house sales and what may be in private collections will never be known.

Dispersal of the collection, 1958 –1965

In 1958 the newly appointed curator and the Borough of Southwark decided that the reopened Cuming Museum would display only ‘three dimensional source material for the history of the local area'. They began to look about for suitable homes for the ethnography. They were encouraged to take this decision, like many other Local Authority museums of the time, by the prevailing policy of the Museums Association. An advertisement was placed in The Times and interested parties invited to pick over what was available. The first loan to be arranged was with the London School of Economics in 1963. They were offered the best of the remaining Polynesian objects.

Hawaiian snakeskin drum, known to have been collected on Cook’s voyage, now in the

British Museum.

Hawaiian figurine taken from a Morai, or temple enclosure, in 1825, now in the St Louis Art

Museum, USA.

A Morai or sacred enclosure in Hawaii. Engraved plate from the octavo edition of Cook’s Voyages, W. Angus after John Webber, who was the official artist on the third voyage.

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The curators recognised that the terms of the Cuming Bequest prohibited the dispersal of the collection so they used a non-legal term that appeared to them to get round the impediment, calling them 'Permanent Loans. In the following decades when the Cuming Museum was approached by various researchers who were interested in the Cuming ethnographic collection. They were usually told that the collection had either been lost in the Blitz or was all dispersed. Resolving the loans, 1998 – present

The situation of the dispersed collection continued up to 1997 when the Cuming Museum applied for Registration. One condition laid down by the MGC was to correct the anomalous situation of the 'permanent loans'. By 1998 the various museums and institutions that had Cuming material on loan had been contacted. From 2000 a more detailed programme of work on the loans was begun. This work has resulted in many benefits. For museums that have acquired Cuming objects we are now better placed to provide information about the history of these objects. Loan arrangements have been concluded with some institutions and others have decided to return the material.

The Cuming Museum, 1960s. The exhibits in the cases predominantly featured archaeological finds coming from the excavations of the Southwark and Lambeth Archaeological Association. The

collection was mainly in storage.

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MAKING THE COLLECTION RELEVANT TODAY

The collection has great potential to tell the story of European exploration and discovery in many parts of the world. It is wide-ranging and diverse, containing material from up to 50 different countries and cultures. Many of the objects in these collections are internationally significant or have played an important role in the evolution of British museums.

Many of the objects in the Cuming ethnographic collection come from lands that now have a representative community in Southwark. The museum is thus in a fairly unusual position for a local history museum. It has the opportunity to build relationships and to work creatively and collaboratively with our diverse local communities through its worldwide collections. Today the Cuming Museum's remit is to collect and represent all Southwark's diverse communities. The museum also aims to make its collections as widely accessible as possible.

Untold Origins Exhibition 2004 - 2005

In 2004 the museum worked in partnership with a local Caribbean dance company to engage a group of young people with the Guyana (Schomburgk) Collection. This project resulted in a dance piece inspired by the collection. The project also included the Untold Origins exhibition (October 2004 to February 2005), which traced the history and the survival of the culture of indigenous

communities in the Caribbean. The exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK, demonstrated the direct link between the indigenous Caribbean people to today’s Caribbean culture and their agricultural legacy to the world. 12

Mana– Ornament and Adornment from the Pacific 2006

In 2006 the Cuming carried out a Neighbourhood Renewal funded project working with pregnant teenagers and teenage parents. They participated in workshops to learn jewellery-making skills lead by Southwark-based Samoan artist Rosanna Raymond, and inspired by historic Oceanic jewellery in the collection. The project brought a new and invaluable understanding to the Oceanic collection.

View of the Untold Origins exhibition 2004.

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The exhibition ‘Mana– Ornament and Adornment from the Pacific’, using 18th and 19th century objects from the Cuming collection, showed the importance of jewellery, dress and body adornment to the people of the Pacific and the strong links between craft skills and power, status and celebration. 13

The Cuming Museum’s world

collection thus provides us with innumerable ways to engage with our local communities through creative and innovative projects.

Rosanna Raymond and a Mana craft workshop participant, 2006.

Views of the Mana exhibition 2006.

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Acknowledgements

This article has its origins in a report prepared to accompany a grant application to the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2005, though it has been heavily revised since then. It was also printed in the Journal of Museum Ethnography, Issue 20.

A number of people have been extraordinarily generous with time, encouragement, and information during the course of my research. I am particularly grateful to the following: Jeremy Coote of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, for his editorial support, assistance with references and notes and advice; Cath Olberholtzer, of the Department of Anthropology, Trent University, Ontario, Canada, for sharing her research and for assistance in confirming the identification of the Cree dolls; Adrienne Kaeppler, of the Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, for sharing her research on the Leverian Museum; Peter Riviere, formerly of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, for sharing information on the Schomburgk collection; and Colin McEwen, of the Department of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum, for assistance in identifying the significance of the Schomburgk collection. I am looking forward to continuing to work with these and other scholars to unlock further the importance of the Cuming's collection of world ethnography.

Notes 1. Thus little information about the collections was available in the 1960s and 1970s to the compilers of the UNESCO survey of Pacific collections (Gathercole and Clarke 1979) or the compilers of the MEG survey of ethnographic collections (see Schumann (ed.) 1986: 76). 2. For further information about the Cuming Museum, its history, its collections, its exhibitions (past and present), and its projects, visit Southwark Council's web site www.southwark.gov.uk/CumingMuseum/ and www.southwarkcollections.org.uk 3. Richard Cuming's copy of the Leverian sale catalogue (Lever 1806) is held at the Cuming Museum (CI6701) and is available for consultation by appointment. 4. Cuming purchased the nine objects in three lots on the fifty-third day of the sale. The lots were as follows: lot 6252, 'A scarlet and white feather helmet, and two daggers, Sandwich Isles' (Leverian Museum 1806: 273); lot 6293, 'Pouch and two belts of North American Indians' (ibid.: 275); and lot 6319, 'Four curious daggers' (ibid.). 5. For more information about Fillingham (aka Fillinham) and his relationship with both the Leverian Museum and Richard Cuming, see Adrienne Kaeppler's forthcoming publication on the Leverian Museum (Kaeppler in press). 6. For more details about these and other acquisition sources see the fuller

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version of the Cuming Ethnographic Report, available from the museum 7. This essay, TN05354, along with other Cuming family papers, is held at the Cuming Museum. 8. For details of the dolls see Oberholtzer, Cath, 1999, 'All Dolled Up: the Encapsulated Past of Cree Dolls', Papers of the Algonquian Conference, Ed. David H. Pentland, Winnipeg, University of Manitoba. 2009, 'Cree Dolls, Miniature Ambassadors of the North', American Indian Art Magazine, Vol 35, No 1, Winter 2009. 9. Henry Cuming's correspondence with Spencer George Perceval is held at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 10. See, for example, the entry for the Cuming Museum in the UNESCO survey of Oceanic collections (Gathercole and Clarke 1979), where it is noted that 'all items now in the museum, except Australian knife' and Hawaiian dagger, have not been traced and may have been destroyed in war or lost their identification'. 11. For information on the ex-Cuming objects in James Hooper's collection, see the entries for lots 171, 184, 185, 190, 194, and 197 in the catalogue for the sale of part of the Hooper collection held at Christie's in 1977 (Christie's 1977). See also the entries, and associated plates, for catalogue numbers 270, 272, 284, 532, 533, 534, 536, 539, 1332, 1366, 1367, 1370, 1371, 1373, 1374, 1376, 1377, and 1379 in the catalogue of the Hooper collection (Phelps 1976). There is an entry for the Hawaiian drum (AOA 1977.0c8.l) in the 'Explore' section of the British Museum's website at www.britishmuseum.org/. For a photograph of James Hooper holding the drum, see Phelps 1976: 13. 12. For more information on the Untold Origins exhibition, see the PDFs downloadable from the 'Previous Exhibitions' sub-section of the Cuming Museum page on the Southwark Council website (see note 2 above). 13. For more information on the Mana exhibition, see the accompanying booklet (Cuming Museum no date [2006]) and the PDFs downloadable from the 'Previous Exhibitions' sub-section of the Cuming Museum page on the Southwark Council website (see note 2 above). For an illustrated review of Mana in the previous issue of the Journal of Museum Ethnography, Number 20, March 2008 Journal, see Coote 2007. References Altick, Richard D 1978. The Shows of London, Cambridge, Mass. and London: Belknap Press (Harvard University Press). Christie and Manson 1851. Catalogue of the Extensive Museum of Thomas

Dawson Esq. of Grasmere, Cumberland, which Will be Sold by Auction by Messrs Christie and Manson at their Great Room, 8, King Street, St James Square, on Thursday, April 10, 1851, London.

Christie's 1977. Five Marquesas Islands Clubs, Hawaiian and Maori Art from the Late James T Hooper's Collection [catalogue of a sale held at 8 King Street, St James's, London on Monday 21 June 1977 at 10.30 a.m.], London: Christie, Manson, & Woods.

Coote, Jeremy 2007. Review of Mana: Ornament and Adornment from the Pacific, an exhibition held at the Cuming Museum, Southwark, London, from

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28 February to 15 July 2006, Journal of Museum Ethnography, no. 19 (March), pp. 156-60.

Cuming Museum no date [2006]. Mana: Ornament and Adornment from the Pacific: Exhibition Catalogue, Cuming Museum, February 28 to July 15, London: Cuming Museum.

Dick, P. 1821. A Catalogue of the Entire and Valuable Museum of P Dick Esq. Removed from Sloane Street... Which Will be Sold by Auction by Mr Bullock at his Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, on Tuesday, 27th of February, 1821, London.

Force, Roland w., and Maryanne Force 1968. Art and Artifacts of the 18th Century: Objects in the Leverian Museum as Painted by Sarah Stone, Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press.

Gathercole, Peter, and Alison Clarke 1979. Survey of Oceanic Collections in Museums in the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic, Paris: UNESCO.

Gurney, George, and Therese Thau Heyman 2002. George Catlin and his Indian Gallery, Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum / New York: W. W. Norton.

Humphrey, Stephen 2002. An Introduction to the Cuming Family and the Cuming Museum, London: Southwark Local Studies Library, London Borough of Southwark.

Hyacinth, Bryn, and Catherine Hamilton 2006. Cuming Museum Collections: Ethnographic Collection, London: The Cuming Museum.

Kaepp1er, Adrienne L. 1978. 'Artificial Curiosities ': Being an Exposition of Native Manufactures Collected on the Three Pacific Voyages of Captain James Cook, R.N. at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum January 18, 1978-August 31, 1978 on the Occasion of the Bicentennial of the European Discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain CookJanuary 18, 1778 (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 65), Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. ----in press. Holophusicon, The Leverian Museum: An Eighteenth-Century London Institution of Science, Curiosity and Art, Vienna: Museum fur Volkerkunde.

Leverian Museum 1790. A Companion to the Museum (Late Sir Ashton Lever 's) Removed to Albion Street, the Surry End of Black Friars Bridge, London, London. ----1806. Catalogue of the Leverian Museum: The Sale of the Entire Collection (By Messrs King and Lochee) Will Commence on Monday, the 5th of May, 1806, at Twelve O'Clock in the Building Occupied by the Museum, London.

----1979. A Companion to the Museum, MDCCXC; The Sale Catalogue of the Entire Collection, 1806: A Facsimile Reprint of the Above Two Rare Volumes, the Sale Catalogue with Manuscript Annotations, Prices, and Buyers' Names, London: Harmer Johnson & John Hewett.

Megaw, J. V. S. 1993. "'Something Old, Something New": Further Notes on the Aborigines of the Sydney District as Represented by their Surviving Artefacts, and as Depicted in Some Early European Representations', in Jim Specht (ed.), F. D. McCarthy, Commemorative Papers (Archaeology, Anthropology, Rock Art) (Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 17), Sydney: Australian Museum, pp. 25-44.

Oberholtzer, Cath, 1999, 'All Dolled Up: the Encapsulated Past of Cree Dolls', Papers of the Algonquian Conference, Ed. David H. Pentland, Winnipeg, University of Manitoba.

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2009, 'Cree Dolls, Miniature Ambassadors of the North', American Indian Art Magazine, Vol 35, No 1, Winter 2009.

Phelps, Steven 1976. Art and Artefacts of the Pacific, Africa, and the Americas: The James Hooper Collection, London: Hutchinson.

Riviere, Peter (ed.) 2006. The Guiana Travels of Robert Schomburgk, 1835-1844 (2 vols; Works Issued by the Hakluyt Society, 3rd ser., nos 16 and 17), London: Ashgate (for the Hakluyt Society).

Schomburgk, Robert H. 1840. Catalogue of Objects in Illustration of Ethnography & Natural History, Composing the Guinea Exhibition, London: E. & 1. Thomas. Schumann, Yvonne (ed.) 1986. Volume 1 of Museum Ethnographers' Group Survey of Ethnographic Collections in the United Kingdom, Eire and the Channel Islands: Interim Report (Museum Ethnographers Group Occasional Paper, no. 2), Hull: Museum Ethnographers Group.

Smith, Andrew 1837a. A Catalogue of the South African Museum Now Exhibiting in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, the Property of a Society Entitled 'The Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa " London.

--------1837b. A Catalogue of the South African Museum For Sale by Auction at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, on Wednesday, June 6, and Two Following Days, London.

-----1975. Andrew Smith's Journal of his Expedition into the Interior of South Africa, 1834-36, Cape Town: Balkema.

Surrey Museum no date [1836?]. Catalogue of the Surrey Museum, 9 Marlborough Place, Walworth Road, London.

Waterfield, Hermione 2006. 'K. A. Webster, 17 December 1906-5 October 1967', in Hermione Waterfie1d and Jonathan C. H. King, Provenance: Twelve Collectors of Ethnographic Art in England, 1760-1990, Paris: Somogy Art Publishers, pp. 143-51.

Wilson, James 1799. A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, Performed in the Years 1769, 1797, 1798, in the Ship Duff, Commanded by Captain James Wilson, London: T. Chapman.

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