The Northcote Whitridge Thomas Archive

Mask (1909.67.21) with red-brown paint, representing a face, from Benin or Nigeria. Donated by Northcote Whitridge Thomas.Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868–1936) was a British government anthropologist who conducted field research in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915, recording songs, music and the spoken word onto hundreds of wax cylinders. Thomas also assembled a major artefact collection, which he subsequently presented to the University of Cambridge's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. His thousands of field photographs were split between the Royal Anthropological Institute (negatives) and Cambridge (albums).

The Pitt Rivers Museum holds a collection of 448 wax cylinder recordings of Edo and Igbo peoples recorded by Thomas, donated in 1914. The British Library Sound Archive holds an even larger selection of over 700 of Thomas's recordings. The set in Oxford duplicates that at the British Library and is of a similar quality.

The Recordings

Many of Northcote Thomas' wax cylinder recordings are of very good quality. He has recorded songs and spoken word in a variety of different languages, including Igbo, Bini (Edo), and Ibo in Nigeria, and Mende, Fuuta Jalon and Susa in Sierra Leone. Thomas has recorded several examples of instrumentation, including flutes, trumpets and balangi (a type of xylophone in Sierra Leone). His collection includes many examples of both male and female solos, as well as group songs, and antiphonal call and response songs. Northcote Thomas himself can be heard announcing the recording time, place and content on many of the wax cylinders

The Playlist

The playlist below includes examples of group and solo singing, flute, wind instrument and xylophone playing, and an Ibo male shouting war songs.