Opportunity to acquire a unique collection of textiles and artefacts.

Collector Virginia Bond Korda would like to offer her collection of textiles and some artefacts to a museum in the UK. Virginia is a retired anthropologist, overseas development consultant and textile collector who has amassed a collection over 35 years whilst travelling and working in many areas around the world.

The collection consists of textiles, garments and accessories, as well as some artifacts, representing key techniques, processes, and styles from countries and communities in North, East and West Africa, South and Central Asia, South America and Polynesia. Some items have already been donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum. Virginia is seeking a home for the rest of her collection ideally, but she would also be open to offers from museums wishing to acquire a small number of pieces that fill gaps in collections and fulfil collections development aims.

Virginia is happy to provide a list of objects and a biography, please do contact her directly if you would like to pursue this opportunity.  Virgina Bond Korda virginia@woodhillbarn.co.uk.

Barkcloth Basics: Interpreting and Understanding Pacific Barkcloth Workshop

  Venues & Dates:        Horniman Museum and Gardens, London, Friday 3 April 2020

Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, Wednesday 8 April 2020

New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester, Tuesday 14 April 2020

The Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton, Friday 17 April 2020

National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Friday 24 April 2020

Time:                                     10h00 – 16h30

Places available:               10 per venue

The University of Glasgow’s AHRC-funded research project SituatingPacific Barkcloth in Time and Place has received further funding to maximise impact and engagement and is delighted to announce an exciting 1-day workshop, to be held at 5 regional host venues, in April 2020.

Samoan Barkcloth Workshop

Led by the host venue, the project team and Reggie Meredith and Uilisone Fitiao, barkcloth makers and scholars from American Samoa, the workshop is aimed at non-specialist curators and museum staff from local and regional museums and historic houses. Participants will explore through talks, demonstrations and practical sessions:

·         Barkcloth significance, use and history

·         Barkcloth materials, manufacture and decoration

·         Barkcloth storage and conservation

·         Understanding and working with your own barkcloth collections

Each host venue’s barkcloth collection will act as a valuable study resource during discussions, while examples of modern raw plant materials, tools and barkcloth will be available for participants to interact and engage with. Participants are expected to bring images and provenance information of their museum’s barkcloth pieces for analysis and discussion. Resources will be provided to help in the further interpretation and understanding of barkcloth, allowing museums to make it more accessible and host innovative, interactive and informative opportunities for their own visitors. 

Barkcloth Basics

A public 1-day event follows each museum staff workshop; for more information, please see the website of each regional host. All participants are welcome to attend the public events.

Each 1-day workshop includes catering for all participants. Travel/accommodation funding will be taken under consideration if requested. This will be decided upon the discretion of the workshop organisers. Booking is essential; select venues may have the capacity to host more than 10 places.

To apply for a place,* please fill in the form and send to arts-admin-barkcloth@glasgow.ac.uk by 17.00 on Friday 20 March 2020.

*If applying to attend a workshop in a region other than your own, please explain why on the form. First priority will be given to participants located within each region.

           

Workshop and CFP:Public Textiles and Dress in Museums and Historic Houses: Textiles and Dress for Display and Show

Thursday 11 June 2020

University of Wolverhampton, UK

https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/public/

Building on last year’s workshop on Private Textiles and Dress, CHORD invite submissions to a workshop that explores historic textiles and dress held in museums, historic houses, archives and other collections, which were and / or are intended to be displayed, seen or worn in public. They also welcome submissions that focus on ‘private’ items that have become ‘public’.

Papers focusing on any historical period or geographical area are welcome. They define ‘public’ broadly, and also welcome papers that challenge a simple distinction between public and private, including domestic items or collections intended for public view, or ‘private’ items that might also have a political meaning. Both textiles and clothing are of interest, as are all aspects of their acquisition, care, display, interpretation or conservation.

Museum professionals, conservators, archivists, students, academic scholars or anybody with an interest in the topic are warmly invited to submit a proposal. We welcome both experienced and new speakers, including speakers without an institutional affiliation.

Individual papers are usually 20 minutes in length, followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion. They also welcome shorter, 10 minute ‘work in progress’ or ‘collection spotlight’ (which aims to draw attention more briefly than in a full paper to a particular item or collection) presentations, also followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussion.

Some of the themes that are of interest include (but are not limited to):

◾Flags and banners
◾Dress for show: party clothes
◾Textiles in public buildings
◾Collecting, conserving and displaying public textiles and dress ◾Textiles for display: artworks, samplers, tapestries ◾Outerwear, protective clothing, coveralls ◾Displaying private clothes and / or textile items
◾Displays: photographs, fashion shoots, shop displays ◾Uniforms, insignia and symbols ◾Office wear, sports wear, dance wear ◾Theatrical costumes and disguises

Small bursaries will be available for speakers to subsidise the cost of travel (within the UK) and the workshop fee (please contact the workshop organiser for further information).

To submit a proposal, please send title and abstract of c.300 to 400 words, specifying whether you are proposing a 10 or a 20 minute presentation to Laura Ugolini, at l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk by 20 March 2020.

If you are unsure whether to submit a proposal or would like to discuss your ideas before submission, you are encouraged to e-mail Laura Ugolini at l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

The workshop will be held at Wolverhampton University City Campus, a short walk from Wolverhampton’s bus and train stations.

The call for papers can be found here: https://retailhistory.wordpress.com/2020/01/07/public/

News about CHORD events, as well as blogs based on past conference papers, can be found here:
http://retailhistory.wordpress.com/about/

For any further information, please e-mail Laura Ugolini at: l.ugolini@wlv.ac.uk

Appeal for Information on John Hewitt and Ethnographic Collections from Sarawak in the UK

Rosanna Nicolson, NMS is looking for some information, she writes: 

Over the last nine months I have done some provenance research on National Museums Scotland (NMS) collection of around 500 objects from Borneo. I recently presented a paper at the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies conference in Berlin titled 'Advantageous Opportunities: Securing Objects from Borneo for Scotland's National Museum' to share some of my findings.

One of these collections purchased by NMS in 1909 was the purchase of eighty ethnographic items from John Hewitt (1880-1961), the Curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, East Malaysia, from 1905 to 1908.

Hewitt was originally from Dronfield, near Sheffield, and NMS must have purchased this collection whilst he was briefly back in the UK before leaving for a new museum post in South Africa. He was appointed the Director of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown in 1910 where he worked until his retirement in 1958.  

As a zoologist it seems likely Hewitt's link with NMS initially came through our Natural Sciences department as we purchased thousands of specimens from him. However, I think that ours could be the only ethnographic collection assembled during his time in Sarawak and brought to the UK.

There appears to be very little supplementary or archival information about John Hewitt's time at the Sarawak Museum. However, many of the objects have a handwritten label with a number which presumably corresponded to an inventory compiled by him. One can assume that once this information was transferred to the register the original list was discarded.

The collection formed by Hewitt that’s now in Edinburgh includes models and spirit figures, wood carvings, basketry, domestic utensils, betel chewing equipment, musical instruments, personal ornamentation, and examples of weaving and dying tools and processes as well as finished textiles. 

 Basket A.1909.330   

    Cap of plaited rattan A.1909.365

Annual reports for the Sarawak Museum during Hewitt's time as Curator mention similar types of material in their lists of acquisitions. Many of which could have been specifically commissioned for the museum. For example, a group of Melanau spirit figures (dakan) about which Hewitt co-authored an article with A. E. Lawrence (Resident of Mukah) titled 'Some Aspects of Spirit Worship Amongst the Milano of Sarawak' published in JRAI in 1908 (Vol. 38, pp.388-408).

The Melanau produced a whole range of spirit figures, called dakan, carved out of softwood or sago pith. These figures were used to heal the sick so they had to have the correct characteristics and attributes to be easily recognizable, for example as a spirit which causes headaches and fevers. Arm position, headgear, facial expression, and clothing indicated which of the many spirits the dakan was supposed to represent. After a ritual was performed to cure the sickness, the spirit figures were returned to their own domain, either in the jungle, the air or the water.

The Sarawak Museum's Annual Report for 1906 lists 'one complete set of 'Dakan' from Mukah. […] which number in all about 80 […] This collection, which was obtained for us by Mr. A. E. Lawrence, is the most interesting addition to our collection for some years' (p.9). It seems likely that the figures now in Edinburgh were also acquired by Mr Lawrence and were extras or duplicates not needed for the Sarawak Museum's collection.

Another example is a set of Iban (Sea Dayak) wood carvings documenting different patterns and their names. The Sarawak Museum's Annual Report for 1907 lists two different groups of wood carvings acquired during that year, one being 'Sea Dayak carving executed by Sarawak rangers from the Undup region.' Interestingly one example in our collection is said to be a copy of the Kayan asu (dog/dragon) pattern, so a design predominantly used but another cultural group.

Sadly, as no correspondence survives, we don’t know whether the curator in Edinburgh asked Hewitt to assemble an ethnographic collection representative of the indigenous peoples and cultures in Sarawak for the museum, or if Hewitt was just trying to sell this material before moving to South Africa. The answer to this may become clearer if I can establish whether any other UK collections purchased, or were given, ethnographic artefacts from Hewitt.

I would also very interested to find out more generally about other UK holdings of material from what was formally British North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak.

Please contact me on r.nicolson@nms.ac.uk or 0131 247 4184.