Ethnography at the British Museum

Ethnography at the British Museum describes how ethnography has developed at the British Museum.

The ethnographical collection was originally linked to the Department of Natural History and Curiosities. The addition of material gathered by Captain James Cook and his companions between 1767 and 1780, and presented to the British Museum by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Cook himself and Joseph Banks, were a substantial addition to the material previously collected by Sir Hans Sloane. But much of this collection was dispersed. Some material found its way to Göttingen, where August Ludwig Schlözer was developing his concepts of Völkerkunde and ethnographie. However additional material was transferred from the "artificial curiosities" held by the museum of the Royal Society until 1781. In 1817 this was supplemented by material from West Africa collected by Thomas Edward Bowdich during his 'Mission to Ashantee', in 1825 by Aztec sculptures collected by William Bullock in Mexico and Captain William Edward Parry's Eskimo material from his second Arctic voyage of 1829.

In 1836 the Department of Antiquities was established and the ethnographic collection was transferred there. When Christian Jürgensen Thomsen visited the British Museum in 1843, he did not hide his disappointment: he was unimpressed ‘by the British antiquities everywhere covered in dust and not much esteemed’ and complained that the artefacts were displayed without indication of their provenance. An Ethnological Gallery was opened in 1845. In 1851 there were 3,700 artefacts in the ethnographic collection, displayed in a single gallery. In 1852 this consisted of seventy four cases of material from outside Europe: nine containing Chinese and Indian material, 4 African material, 29 material from the Americas with remaining 32 cases containing material from Oceania and South East Asia. Polynesia alone accounted for 15 cases.

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