From
March to August 2014 National Museums Scotland led a project funded by the
British Academy/Leverhulme called Military
Encounters – Reassessing military collecting in North America and Tibet.
The aim of this project was to bring together material culture specialists from
the fields of anthropology and military history to survey and assess the
interpretive potential of ethnographic material in military collections with reference
to two selected British campaigns: the Seven Years’ War in North America
(1754-63), later expanded to include 19th century material, and the
Younghusband Mission to Tibet (1903-04).
Figure 1: Original caption: ‘Group of Officers 1st
Batt Royal Fusiliers, Taken at Kang-Ma, Thibet, on June 24th 1904’
Image © The Fusilier Museum
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Tower
of London
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Tibet
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Norwich
Castle
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Tibet
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Belfast
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Tibet
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Winchester
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Tibet
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Gillingham,
Kent
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Tibet &
North America
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Winchester
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North America
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Perth
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North America
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Woolwich
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North America
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Eastbourne
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North America
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The
survey included objects, photographs and archival holdings. In addition, most regiment’s
have their own journal which can contain useful information about the history their
collections, acquisitions and former displays.
The
Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive in Kent have a number of items of indigenous
North American clothing from the 1840s and a large photography collection. Highlights
are a coat, bag, gloves and leggings that were presented to the museum by
Captain Moody who was stationed at Fort Garry on the Canadian/United States
border.
This coat
and satchel are typical of items that combine materials and designs of both
indigenous North American and European origin. The Métis coats has features
commonly found in European military uniform, a straight collar, quilled
epaulets, with floral decoration on the lapels and cuffs, and elaborate
quillwork ornament on the back.
Figure 2: [top] Métis coat decorated with quillwork (4201.35.1) [bottom] finger-woven beaded satchel
(4201.35.4) c 1840s. Images © Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive
The
Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum in Winchester has a significant amount of
non-European material on display from various campaigns, but from North America
they have a powder horn dated 1757 from Fort Edward, New York which belonged to
Lieutenant John Longsdon of 3rd Battalion 60th Royal Americans.
The
carving of this horn is similar to the one in the military collection here at National
Museums Scotland that once belonged to a soldier in the 42nd (Royal
Highland) Regiment of Foot, also from New York and dated 1758. Maps, dates, floral
patterns, rhymes and names are carved onto the surface of the horn, and we
believe this particular style to be the work of an amateur.
Figure 3: [above] Lieut. Longsdon’s powder horn, 1757, For Edward (2006.1761) Royal Green Jackets (Rifles)
Museum [below] Powder Horn, 1758,
Lake George (M.1931.581) Image © National Museums Scotland
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The most
significant thing about these powder horns is the indigenous origin of the
straps, which come in different forms. One is quilled and is of the form often
described as a prisoner tie, though we are researching this more fully. The other
is a burden strap or ‘tumpline’ which military records of the mid 1800s show
were issued to light infantry men.
The
Fusilier Museum at the Tower of London has a number of photograph albums and
diaries which provide a fascinating insight into the Younghusband Mission to
Tibet (1903-04) from both a regimental and personal perspective. This compliments
a collection of around 40 objects brought back from the campaign.
Figure 4: Pages from ‘Lebong to
Lhassa and Back’ album (ARC.2082) Images © The Fusilier Museum
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Only
seven men from the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles served in the Mission as a
machine gun detachment under the command of Lieutenant J. C. Bowen-Colthurst.
Despite this, the Royal Ulster Rifles Museum in Belfast has a large album of
450 photographs with a handwritten index, as well as Bowen-Colthurst’s personal
scrapbooks and photographs and a bone Cham costume ornament brought back by
Colour-Sergeant J. Lyle.
Figure 5: Panoramic images taken by
the mission’s official photographer John-Claude White in ‘Views of Thibet’
album (AC.957) Images © Royal
Ulster Rifles Museum
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Photographs,
scrapbooks and diaries proved to be a common strength of the Younghusband
material across the collections surveyed, and significant overlaps were noted. DrClare Harris, Professor of Visual Anthropology and Curator for Asian
Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum has already been consulted and with her
expertise we want to look further into the mixture of personal, official and
commercial prints in these albums, and tease out the particularities of
military photography.
All
the project’s findings have been collated in a catalogue and for further
information please contact any of the project team, details below. We would
also be happy to receive any information you may have about regimental
collections in your area as we are planning on extending this research to look
at material brought back from other locations and campaigns.
Henrietta Lidchi, Keeper, Department of World Cultures
Rosanna Blakeley, Assistant Curator
Stuart Allan, Principal Curator, Scottish Late Modern Collections
Assistant Curator, National Museums Scotland.
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