Committee for the Pitt Rivers Museum as of 1 October 1992 [NB something strange happens here re the timing of the annual reports]
The Vice-Chancellor (Sir Richard Southwood)
The Senior Proctor (Dr. John Isles)
The Junior Proctor (Mr. M. Matthews)
The Assessor (Dr. D.S. Fairweather)
Professor G.A. Harrison (Chairman)
Dr. F.B. Atkins
Dr. R.H. Barnes
Dr. Malcolm Coe
Professor Barry Cunliffe
Professor John Davis
Mr. J.S. Flemming
Ms.Joanna Innes
Dr. Schuyler Jones
Mr. Frances Maddison
Dr. Dennis Shaw
Dr. Steve Simpson
Dr. Donald Tayler
Dr. Christopher White
The Pitt Rivers Museum
The Committee for the Pitt Rivers Museum, having received the following annual report from the Director, presented it as its report to Congregation.
Introduction
Financial problems and a consequent shortage of staff and facilities in this reporting period have once again dominated our daily work and adversely affected our advance planning. We estimate that by the end of the financial year 1992-93 we shall have a deficit of some £25,000. This is approximately the amount by which the General Board reduced our income in the course of budget cuts during the 1986-1991 retrenchment exercise. The imbalance between the Museum's grant and its legitimate academic needs causes considerable concern, particularly as regards the care and maintenance of the collections, our commitment to teaching, and our ability to meet the research demands and public expectations of an institutional standing.
The Main Museum
In those parts of the museum to which the public has access our main task during this reporting period has been to push ahead with the design and setting up of new permanent displays in the Upper Gallery. To this end three of our five technicians have spent virtually all their working hours in that gallery for a number of months now, and very substantial progress has been made. It is expected that the north and south sides and the west end of the gallery will be opened to the public in 1994, leaving only the east end closed for a further temporary period, due to the fact that a large number of musical instruments are kept there. Until additional space can be found where these can be kept under satisfactory conditions, that part of the gallery will have to remain closed and the new permanent displays planned for that area postponed.. This delay is a matter of regret for all of us, as half the Upper Gallery has been closed to the public for nearly 20 years now, solely because of shortages of space and staff.
It may be mentioned here that as soon as the Upper Gallery has been re-opened to the public, we shall turn our attention to the Lower Gallery which, although open to the public, contains displays which for the most part were set up forty years ago.
Temporary Exhibitions in the Main Museum
The exhibition Basketmakers: Meaning and Form in Native American Baskets ran until 22 May 1993. The exhibition was very well received by basketry enthusiasts, Native American specialists, and the general public.
Wilfred Thesiger's Photographs: A Most Cherished Possession was planned by Elizabeth Edwards to mark Mr Thesiger's gift to the Museum of his magnificent collection of photographs. This was not only the first exhibition of Mr Thesiger's photographs ever held in Britian, it was the first anywhere to look at his entire career as a photographer. It was more ambitious and complex than any other photographic exhibition we have mounted. The selection of 80 images from some 25,000 to produce an exhibition which had visual coherence was in itself a major task of photography curatorship. The exhibition, sponsored by Barclays Bank, was opened by H.R.H. Princess Sarvath of Jordan in the presence of Mr Thesiger and the Vice-Chancellor. An audience of some 200 guests was then treated by Mr Thesiger to an informal narrative account of some of his earlier travels. The exhibition has attracted widespread coverage and has proved immensely popular, It is particularly satisfying to know that Wilfred Thesiger himself is delighted with it. When it closes in February 1994 the exhibition will tour the Middle East and East Africa under the auspices of the British Council. In the Spring of 1995 it will go on tour in the United States, though the details of this are still being negotiated.
The exhibition entitled Wamo, showing the photographs Diamond Jenness took in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands in 1912, produced by the Museum in 1991, was also exhibited in a slightly different form at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under the title Diamond Jenness in the Pacific Islands 1911-12. It was on view until May 1993.
Temporary Exhibitions in the Balfour Building
Two temporary exhibitions were organised during this year. The first, In the Steps of the Hunters and Fisherman, focused on the frame drums of Asia and America, highlighting the various musical traditions of the peoples who made the original journey from Asia to America. This provided a rare opportunity to concentrate on exhibiting one type of instrument from a wide geographical area. Many thanks are due to Dr. S.A. Mousalimas who gave much help, both with the exhibition and by establishing contacts for us with colleagues in Siberia. The second exhibition, The Instrumental Muse: An exhibition of One Thousand Years of European Musical Instrument Making, included musical instruments from archaeological excavations, as well as examples of traditional everyday music making and some of the more unusual inventions which are to be found in the Museum's collections. This exhibition gave us the opportunity to put most of our keyboard instruments on display for the first time. We were very happy to be able to include one of our recent acquisitions, a grand piano made by Robert Wornum.
Sound and Slide Shows in the Balfour Building
Notes from the Field comprised an audio-visual display using materials from the fieldwork of anthropologists connected with Oxford University. The main display included some of the early wax cylinder recordings from the Museum's sound library, while the exhibition also drew together some of the notebooks, photographs, and other material which have been deposited in the Museum and its archives. The anthropologists represented included E.E. Evans-Pritchard, J.H. Hutton, Diamond Jenness, and Beatrice Blackwood.
Song from the Forest: An Audio-Visual Exhibition of the Music of the Ba-Benjelle Pygmies conprised photographs, recordings, and narration by Louis Sarno. Mr Sarno, author of the book Song from the Forest, was awarded a grant from the Museum's James A. Swan Fund to enable him to carry out fieldwork in Africa.
Baines Music Garden
In the grounds of the Balfour Building we have collaborated with the University Botanic Garden and the University Parks Department in cultivating a garden of plants connected with music and musical instruments. As it was Dr Anthony Baines's eightieth birthday year we decided to dedicate the garden to him as a celebratory birthday present and a 'thank you' for the help he has given us over the years. Initially, the idea was to grow some of the plants from which musical instruments are made, such as box and bamboo, but this was extended to include plants named after instruments, such as campanula, trumpet lilies and so on. The garden was dedicated on 18 June, and we trust that it will be a source of enjoyment for many years to come.
The first event to be held in the newly dedicated Baines Music Garden was for National Music Day, this being the second year running that the Museum had participated in this national celebration. Various musicians came to join in our celebration of music, including Segara Madu, the Metalworks Gamelan, Richard Jolly, Phil Powell, and the St Giles' Church Bellringers. We must thank all those who not only gave of their time, but also allowed Museum visitors to 'have a go' at playing their instruments.
Other Museum Events
The programme of events associated with Basketmakers proved to be as popular as the exhibition itself. Linda Mowat gave a public lecture on 'Baskets and Basketmakers of Eastern North America' in October, and the practical basketry workshops taught by British basketmakers Polly Pollock, Shuna Rendel, and Dail Behennah were so successful that by popular request an extra workshop was added to the programme. A meeting of the Museum Ethnographers' Group, entitled 'Baskets of the World' was hosted by the Museum on 27 November. This very successful day was attended by a mixed group of ethnographers and basketmakers, who found much of common interest, while the resulting discussions were lively. The papers given ranged in topic from 'Pre-Columbian Work Baskets' to 'Zulu Telephone-Wire Baskets', and most of the speakers brought baskets to show. The day ended with a special reception in the Basketmakers exhibition. The proceedings have been published as a special issue of the Journal of Museum Ethnography (No. 4).
The Bead Society of Great Britain held its AGM at the Museum on 11 July. The day included an opportunity for members of the society to view the Arkell bead collection stored in the Lower Gallery.
On 25 September a Bead Day, led by Sarah Withers, was held in the Museum. This Event also included an opportunity to see the Arkell bead collectyion as well as a practical workshop on jewellery-making. The day proved so popular that a further one-day event was arranged for October.
Visitors
As in previous years we have recorded a steady increase in the number of visitors to the Museum. The annual total is now nearly 100,000, constituting a ten-fold increase in twenty years. As we have no money with which to advertise, the reasons for this increase musty be put down to a growing national and international interest in museums. We are pleased to have an ever-increasing number of visitors, but given our present resources the extent to which we can continue to deal satisfactorily with such increases must be carefully considered.
Museum Documentation and Records
Computerization of the manual card index has been completed for the following sections: the Ainu of Japan, Tibet, the Caribbean, Colombia, and ancient Peruvian textiles. About 13,000 records are now included in the database. With expert assistance from Gerry Brush the conversion of information from the database to publishable format was accomplished, enabling Linda Mowat to produce the Museum's Catalogue of the Native American Collections, Listing some 2,000 specimens from North America by culture, area and tribe, with basic data and a short description of each object. This volume is an invaluable research tool that demonstrates one of the practical uses to which museum databases can be put. It is hoped that this publication will be the first of many in a similar format.
New Acquisitions
Fifty-two collections were acquired during the year, twelve by purchase, forty-one by donation, and one on loan.
Purchases were as follows: an early 19th century dagger from Nuristan (1993.7: from Jonathan Barrett): a collection of contemporary artefacts from Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand (1993.31; from Sandra Dudley); a horse-head fiddle' from Mongolia (1992.41; from Mr Dambyn Galsandorj, the Mongolian Cultural Attaché); toys made from recycled materials in recycled tims by teenage boys in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (1992.38; from Joliba); a complete woman's costume from Sisimiut, West Greenland, specially made for the Pitt Rivers Museum by Mrs Haldora Davidsen (1992.29; from Hannah Jones); a West Greenland sledge, an East Greenland sledge, and a hide for hunting seals on the ice (1993.28; from Dr. Schuyler Jones); a wind chime from Indonisia (1993.47; from Paradylic); a gourd armadillo toy from Mexico (1993.42; from Schmidt & Co.); casts of five Lupemban stone tools from Zaire, the originals of which were collected by Ray Inskeep in 1959 and are in the collection of the Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town (1992.31; from the South African Museum, Cape Town); a collection of mobile toys and ornaments made from recycled materials in Southern Africa and a bamboo lime box and personal ornaments from Indonesia (1993.15; from Ukwenza); a pottery spindle-whorl and a stone figurine obtained in Guatemala some years ago (1992.33; from Mrs Julia A.Watson).
Donors were as follows: Sir Peter Allen (a collection made by his wife, Consuelo Maria Linares Rivas, during their travels, this collection coming to the Museum on Sir Peter's death; 1993.10); Anonymous (a bow harp, probably from Gabon; 1993.11); Ashmolean Museum (a Turkish tally-stick from Cyprus; 1993.24); Elizabeth Baquedano ( a flute and a pair of maracas from Mexico; 1993.23); Dr Ruth Barnes (a 'basket' and a pair of sandals made from recycled car tyres, from Yemen; 1992.35); Dr Santha Bhattacharji (two musical instruments from India and Tibet; 1992.40); Niels Bolwig (a musical bow from South Africa and a lukembe and lyre from Uganda; 1992.37); Mr Paul Boughton (a quiver of arrows from West Africa; 1993.44); J.W.Boyd (a collection of compact discs and cassettes of traditional music; 1992.28); Mrs E.H.Chancellor (a returning boomerang from Australia; 1993.3); Mrs Catherine Fagg (a Hausa talking-drum from Nigeria; 1993.27); Mr and Mrs L.A. Ferdinand (a Borana meat pot from Kenya; 1993.2); Elaine Fullard (a pair of Inuit sealskin Mukluks with woollen socks to go inside them and a contemporary Cofan comb from Ecuador; 1993.16); Dr. Simon P.A.Gill (six banknotes from Myanmar (Burma); 1993.41); Pamela Grace (a pair of English Pink silk ballet shoes; 1993.35); Hereford City Museum & Art Gallery (a collection of baskets acquired by the late Ms Phillipa Davis during her travels; 1993.40); Marilyn Herman (a miniature Krar or harp from Ethiopia; 1992.32); Hannah Jones and Finn Kramer (a young man's anorak and trousers from Sisimiut, Western Greenland; 1993.37); Peter Jones (two handmade shipwrights' nails used in the construction of Arab dhows, from Zanzibar, Tanzania; 1993.13); Dr Schuyler Jones (a mobile toy, a bird whistle and a household ikon from Russia; 1993.1); Tessa Katzenellenbogen (a collection of Zulu baskets made from telephone wire; 1993.9); Judith Knight (a collection of contemporary musical instruments, weapons and pipes from the Ba-Twa Pygmies of Uganda; 1992.39); Peter M. Langdon (an Aeolian harp fro Waterhead in Scotland, made by Mr David Carruthers; 1993.20); Dr Hélène La Rue a ball-headed club from Southern Africa; 1993.33); Mrs J.M.La Rue (an English boatswain's call; 1993.5); Mrs Cicily Ledger Hill (a remojadas-style pottery head from the Gulf of Mexico, obtained in the 1930s; 1993.18); Maria McLaren ( a minature Zulu penis cover of grass and banana leaves; 1992.36); Mrs J. Maydon (a tripod vessel, probably from Costa Rica, obtained some years ago; 1993.22); Dr. Howard Morphy ( a tube of toothpaste from Hong Kong; 1993.39); Linda Mowat (a collection of contemporary baskets and pottery from Columbia; 1993.14); Mrs Jane Osman (an English lady's sports bow; 1992.27); Mrs Alethea Pitt (items collected by her father, Sir Armine B. Dew, in Asia, including a Tibetan amulet case, a rhinoceros-hide shield and a drum made from a Crusader's helmet; 1993.46); Polly Pollack (a basketry fan from Ghana, made of plastic tubing; 1993.30); Mr Tony Radmore (an English pellet whistle; 1992.30); Peter Rosser Roberts (a collection of artefacts from Botswana and North America; 1993.4); St John Simpson (a boy's cap and two shirts from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; 1993.32); Thames Valley Police (3 riot shields; 1993.21); Janet Tinbergen (an English wooden pitch pipe; 1993.43); Dr and Mrs Marvin L. Weil (a hopi basket from Arizona; 1993.36); Dr George Wood (a collection of contemporary baskets from South America; 1993.26).
A collection of tapes, cassettes, film, and musical instruments, formerly belonging to her late husband, Raymond Clausen, have been loaned to the Museum by Mrs Tandy Clausen (1993.6).
Visitors and Enquiries
Elizabeth Edwards notes that there was a marked increase in the number of visitors to the archives this year, 81 compared with 49 in 1991-2, as well as innumerable postal and telephone enquiries. There would appear to be several reasons for this increase. First, the growing academic interest in the history of anthropology and representation, in visual anthropology, and in historically based anthropological studies; secondly, the Museum's growing reputation for communicating photography in anthropology both inside and outside the discipline itself; and finally, the appointment of a Museum Assistant to deal with visitors and access enquiries, which has meant that we have been able to offer easier and more flexible research facilities to scholars.
Ray Inskeep dealt with something over a dozen enquiries, some by correspondence only, others involving access to collections and/or discussion of material or projects. Arrangements for access to the collections are still unsatisfactory and generally involve some infringement of the Museum's rules on access. As long as the curator has to service his own enquiries, and until there is a study room for visitors at 60 Banbury Road this situation will continue. The only thing that makes the present unsatisfactory arrangements unsustainable is the close proximity of the Curator to the reserve collections and the only available work area (one of the reserve collection storage areas).
Dr Schuyler Jones responded to approximately 100 enquiries, divided unevenly between visitors, telephone queries, and correspondence.
Dr Helene La Rue answered 300 written and many other telephone and personal enquiries relating to the music collections or the Education Service. In the last few years there has been a marked change in the reasons why people come to study the musical instruments. In the past the majority of visitors were instrument makers and restorers, whereas now the greater number are visiting the museum as part of their research projects for BA or Graduate degrees.
Linda Mowat dealt with about 180 written enquiries concerning the collections during the year, in addition to the usual innumerable telephone and personal enquiries. About 130 research visits were made to study reserve collections. These figures show a considerable increase over former years. While the Museum Assistant post has been of tremendous help in coping with the demand, the increasing volume of visitors and enquiries suggests that their numbers expand to meet our ability to deal with them.
Archives
Elizabeth Edwards reports that the year's work in the archives has been dominated by the production of the Thesiger exhibition which stretched the capabilities of the whole museum establishment to its limits, not just the archives section. Where possible, normal functions were maintained and progress was made both with cataloguing the Thesiger material and with dealing with documenting the backlog of nineteenth-century collections. Overall, however, archival work has been severely tested this year, even with an assistant helping four days a week (Ms Cathy Gibbon joined the staff on a one-year contract in September 1992).
The most notable accession to the archives this year, from the estate of Dr. T.A.M. Naish, was a large, well documented collection of colour transparencies taken in northern Nigeria in the 1950s when Dr Naish was engaged in tsetse-fly research. We are also most grateful to the following who have donated interesting visual material to the archive collections: Abedelrahman Abedulahi Mohammed (early museums in Sudan); the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum (Southern Africa, Zulu); Mr J.R.F. Mills (Malaya); Mrs K. Turvey (Native American, Plains); and Dr David Zeitlyn (Northern Nigeria).
Museum Education Service
Helene La Rue reports that the Education Service continues to depend on the generosity and skill of four museum guides: Jean Flemming, Frances Martin, Sally Owen, and Joan Shaw. They have attended several training sessions arranged by the Group for Education in Museums to learn skills related to the new National Curriculum. As a result of the demand from teachers, as well as inspiration from these conferences, several new Museum Trails have been devised.
The Education Service contributed two meetings to the Oxmus Programme. The first of these was arranged as part of the activities surrounding the Basketmakers exhibition. It was called 'Little Baskets' and was led by Polly Pollock, who taught each of the children attending to make a basket or a wickerwork fan. The second Oxmus event 'Museum Explorers' challenged the participating children to imagine what they would do were they a Pitt Rivers Museum Curator faced with the problem of devising activities for children in the Summer holidays. Four Trails were produced by four groups of children, and the first one of these to be used was on sale by the Summer vacation.
Owing to a shortage of volunteers to man Pitt Stop events fewer were held in the course of this year. However, the Summer holidays saw the instigation of activities for rainy Wednesday afternoons. These became known as Wet Wednesday Pitt Stops.
Conservation
Ms Heather Berns reports that conservation work was completed on the material for the Indian Tribal exhibition at the Tropenmuseum and laboratory staff acted as couriers to and from Amsterdam. With this out of the way the laboratory could concentrate on the conservation of materials for the new Upper Gallery displays. Lorraine Rostant continued to provide valuable assistance until the expiry of her one-year contract at the end of March. Conservation for the archery display, the sper and harpoon cases, the Naga display, and the Naga shield case were all completed in this reporting period. A number of items belonging to Wilfred Thesiger were conserved and mounted for display to coincide with the first month of the Wilfred Thesiger photographic exhibition, and a West Greenland costume purchased by the Friends was furnished with a conservation display mount.
Conservation laboratory staff provided advice and monitored sampling undertaken by a number of visiting researchers. These included Doreen Shoreham (sampling South American ceramics for thermo-luminescence dating), Peter Northover (metallographic analysis of Etruscan mirrors), and St John Simpson (investigating residues of smoking substances in pipes). They also analysed the composition of pigments on an African ikenga sculpture being treated by our intern using the X-ray fluorescence facility at the Archaeology Research Laboratory.
Visitors to the laboratory included Margot Wright, who came to discuss ethnographic conservation and storage prior to setting up a new conservation laboratory at Aberdeen University. Kate Collaren arranged a visit by textile conservation students from Hampton Court and Kirsten Walker came to discuss conservation problems associated with storage accessible to the public.
The laboratory benefited from the installation of new localized extraction units, with funding assistance from the Safety office. These have proved a welcome addition allowing for the safer use of chemicals and dusty processes. In upgrading the conservation facilities still further a number of electronic environmental monitoring units were acquired on trial for several weeks, this subsequently enabled us to apply to the University Research and Equipment Committee for funds to purchase a modern system.
From March to September the conservation department undertook the supervision of a German student from the Fachhochschule in Cologne. Marcus Döll was following a specialism in wood conservation and undertook a number of intensive conservation projects as well as contributing to the Upper Gallery conservation programme. Other volunteers who contributed to the work accomplished over the year were Leonie and Rachel Hoskins. We are grateful to them for the practical assistance they gave us.
Photographic Report
Malcolm Osman reports that this has ben a busy period for the studio and darkroom. In addition to providing a comprehensive service to the museum staff and completing many external requests, two major projects were undertaken. Foremost was the selection and printing of more than eighty 16 x 12 inch black-and-white images for the Thesiger exhibition. It soon became evident that many of the original 35mm negatives were in poor condition due to incorrect storage methods and repeated heavy use. A great deal of time was spent in retouching the finished prints to exhibition standard prior to framing. To assist in this work we were fortunate to enlist the aid of Mr Norman McBeath, who undertook to retouch almost half of the total number selected. A souvenir booklet was also produced containing a selection of images from the exhibition. Work also began during the year on photographing each object selected for display in the refurbished Upper Gallery. Hundreds of photographs of spears, harpoons, clubs and archery equipment were taken, constituting the beginnings of a project that will continue into 1994.
Publications Department
Julia Cousins and Kathryn White report that there were three publications, representative of the range of the Museum's activities, during the year. The catalogue of the Native American Collections edited by Linda Mowat was typeset in-house. The long-needed general souvenir guide for visitors was published, and a catalogue to the Wilfred Thesiger exhibition was produced, the latter being made possible by generous sponsorship from Barclays Bank.
The Museum shop has continued to develop a style of its own, half bazaar, half information centre, a combination that has so far proved successful. It was particularly pleasing to discover we had sold over £16,000 worth of books, proving we were, as we suspected, meeting an educational need. The turnover doubled, for the second year running, to £43,500. This was mainly due to the increased level and variety of stock and the improved efficiency in stock-keeping. During the year the accounts were gradually transferred to computer. For the first time the shop could claim to be fully covering its own costs in sales staff ad running costs, thereby freeing a museum attendant for general security duties. Any remaining profits are transferred to the publications fund.
Balfour Library
Richard Hanson reports that thanks to new electrical wiring the Library's working environment now meets safety standards and is better illuminated. The Ethernet connections were completed in October 1993. With new wiring in place, connection to OLIS is being planned for 1994. A replacement window on the ground floor and some new carpeting have helped to lower the noise level,
We were grateful to receive donations of books from the Arthur D. Jenkins Library, the Ashmolean Library, George Bankes, Mr Bob Dempsey, Mrs Sally Chilver, Dr J. Crawley, Ms Linda Gelens, Barry S. Hewlett, Mr Lennox Honychurch, Mr Ray Inskeep, Dr C.A.M. Jansen, Dr Schuyler Jones, Dr Frederick Lamp, Dr E.D. Lewis, Mrs M. Loughran, Mr J.R.F. Mills, Ms Linda Mowat, Dr Colin Newbury, the Oriental Institute Library, Mr Gilles Turle, Dr Vernon Reynolds, Alexander Chablo, Mr Simpson, and Dr Betty Tatar.
The new Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduate readership has resulted in a marked increase in loans and, as a result, Mrs I. Tayler and Ms H. Thompson have been kept busy at the library desk. The increase in the number of undergraduate readers prompted the decision to introduce fines for late returns in order to ensure more efficient use of book stock.
Teaching
The extent to which members of the museum staff are engaged in lecturing to graduate and undergraduate students, supervising graduate dissertations and theses, holding classes, and giving tutorials may occasionally be overlooked by those who tend to think of us as 'just a museum'. In addition to lectures and tutorials for more than fifty first-year Geography and Human Sciences students, we are now teaching for the new Archaeology and Anthropology degree, as well as having approximately 37 M.Phil., M.St., and D.Phil. students.
Heather Berns provided a seminar for the M.St. Students covering the general principles of deterioration and preventive conservation. Elizabeth Edwards has continued to contribute to teaching in the field of visual anthropology and museology in the form of lectures, seminars, tutorials, and the supervision of graduate students. Ray Inskeep gave eight lectures on 'The Evolution of Lithic Technology in Africa' for Human Sciences students, and a single lecture on 'Rock Art in Southern Africa' for the Ethnology and Museum Ethnography course. He also continued to supervise three postgraduate students. Dr Schuyler Jones, together with Dr Tayler and Dr Morphy, continued to offer lectures in the 'People, Environment, and Culture' series during Michaelmas and Hilary Terms. He also gave tutorials to a number of Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduates and supervised the work of several M.St. Students, in addition to supervising some D.Phil. Candidates. Dr Helene La Rue continued to offer lectures in Ethnomusicology for M.St. students as well as running the Ethnomusicology seminars and supervising a growing number of students in that field.
Dr Howard Morphy lectured in the two introductory courses in addition to givien a course on 'The Analysis of Form' with Elizabeth Edwards and classes in Oceanic and Native American Art. With Dr Marcus Banks and Dr R.H. Barnes he organised the ISCA seminar series on 'The Anthropology of Fear'. He was also a member of the Standing Committee for evidence. In addition he continued as a non-stipendiary lecturer at St. Peter's responsible for students in Archaeology and Anthropology as well as supervising 14 graduates students and acting as an examiner for the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography.
Linda Mowat contributed a seminar on Museum Documentation and Research to the Museology option of the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, and lectured on South western Native American basketry and textiles in the series organized for M.St. and undergraduate students. Dr. Donald Tayler continued to offer lectures in the 'People, Environment and Culture' series and classes for the 'Introduction to Ethnographic Film'. He tutored undergraduates reading for the Prelims and Hon.Mods. in Human Sciences, Geography and the new Archaeology and Anthropology degree, and graduate students reading for the M.St. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography , as well as supervising a number of M.Phil. And D.Phil students.
Other Staff Activities
Heather Berns continued to serve as a committee member for the Archaeology section of the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation. She also attended their Annual General Meeting on 'The Conservation of Wood'.
In addition to her main curatorial duties and some teaching, Elizabeth Edwards has continued research on tourist imagery, on the dissemination of early photographic material in anthropology, on aspects of nineteenth-century photography in the Pacific, as well as on related theoretical perspectives in visual history. She has also been working with contemporary photo-artists, exploring questions of cultural representation. She gave seminars at the University of Edinburgh and at the Australian Studies Centre, London, and a public lecture for Oxford photography at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. She was invited to a mafor photo-history conference in Prato, Italy, and gave a paper [in press] on theoretical aspects of description in anthropological photography. She attended the Association of Social Anthropologists conference in Oxford and gave a paper in the visual anthropology session. She also attended the Association of Art Historians conference in Manchester on problematics of portraiture and the first meeting of the European Society of Oceanists in Nijmegan. During a research trip to Germany she worked on early photography in the Pacific in collections in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, and the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. She also visited the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Notman Collection in Montreal. She was appointed to the Editorial Board of History of Photography.
In addition to his usual work on University and College Committees, Ray Inskeep continued to serve on the Editorial Board of World Archaeology as well as working on an issue of the journal to appear in February 1994. In January and February he examined two D.Phil. Theses (for the Universities of Oxford and Cape Town). During the year he supervised a volunteer helper from Australia, Alice Gorman, to sort, and prepare for accessioning, a large collection of archaeological material from Mauritania, donated by Dr Robert Soper in 1983. Grateful thanks are recorded to R.J. MacRae for continued assistance with systematizing the British Lower palaeolithic collections and to Dr Pamela Wace for assistance (on a small grant) with sorting, checking, and entering into the computer record the larger part of our Later European Prehistoric collections. A major part of the year was spent on sabbatical leave, preparing a report for publication on a collection of archaeological material he excavated in Tanzania in 1956.
Dr Schuyler Jones visited museums and consulted colleagues in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, St Petersburg, and Moscow. He continued to serve as Chairman of the Management Committee for the School of Anthropology, Oxford; as a Trustee of the Horniman Museum, Forest Hill, London; as Treasurer of the (National) University Museums Group; as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the History of Collections; as Chairman of the Committee for Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and as a member of the Committee for the Scientific Collections, University Museum, Oxford; and as a member of the Committee for the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford; as well as serving on a number of other committees in the University.
Dr Helene La Rue was engaged, together with Kate Arnold-Foster, in a Review of Music Collections commissioned by the Museums and Galleries Commission (MGC). This work aimed to establish reliable information about the range and scope of musical collections in the United Kingdom, to examine the operation of selected musical collections, taking into consideration curatorial and networking issues, and to ascertain what should be understood by the term 'musical collection'. A major issue under review was whether there should be a National Museum of Music. In the course of the Review both specialist music collections and museums which hold musical instruments, even those with only one or two specimens, were visited. This was the first report of its kind ever to deal with music as it is displayed and interpreted in the museums in the United Kingdom. The survey revealed chronic difficulties, such as the shortage of specialist staffing and training, as well as the lack of resources to provide modern professional displays. As a result of this Review the MGC setup a specialist curators' group and took steps to publish a document on Standards of Care of Musical Instruments. Although much time was taken up by the MGC Review, work on the computer database continued throughout the year. In September 1993 she gave a paper at the International Council of Museums Triennial Conference in Quebec, describing the work being done by the Review. At this meeting she relinquished the editorship of the CIMCIM Newsletter, having filled that position for ten years, Throughout the reporting period she served as Secretary of the Sub-Faculty.
Dr Howard Morphy organized and participated in a seminar for the Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum on 'Art and the Person' and gave a seminar to the Art History Department at College London, as well as a film screening at the London School of Economics. He also gave the Malinowski Memorial Lecture for 1993. He gave seminars at The John Hopkins University and the University of Maryland on styles in ethnographic film. At the Smithsonian Museum lunchtime screenings he introduced the One Man's Response, which he had made with Ian Dunlop. He gave a seminar on Yolngu art at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and a seminar on film and anthropological interpretation at NYU. He was invited to attend the 100th birthday symposium on 'Meaning in the Visual Arts', at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, in memory of Erwin Panofsky. At the Smithsonian he carried out research on their Australian collections and discussed exhibition plans with a number of colleagues. He is preparing a report on their plans for new Africa galleries, He attended the Margaret Mead film festival in New York and took part in the associated symposium. Together with Alison Petch he is producing an edition of F.J. Gillen's letters to Baldwin Spencer, these being among the most important letters in the history of anthropology. This work is being funded by the British Academy and Oxford University and fits in with the Museum's aim of making its research resources as widely accessible as possible. He is nearing the completion of his ESRC-funded research project on competing conceptions of landscape in North Queensland. He was external examiner for the B.A. degree in Anthropology at University College, London and for their new M.A. in Visual Anthropology at Manchester University. He examined two doctoral theses from the Australian National University.
Linda Mowat gave lectures on Native American baskets and basketmakers to the Oxford Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, and to the Oxford branch of the Embroiderers' Guild. She has also been invited to address the AGM of the Basketmakers' Association in October 1993. She gave a paper on Chimu pottery at a South American Archaeology seminar organized by the Institute of Latin American Studies at University College, London. She continued to edit MEG News, the newsletter of the Museum Ethnographers' Group, and also acted as Guest Editor for a special issue of the Journal of Museum Ethnography, devoted to the papers from the MEG meeting 'Baskets of the World' held at the Pitt Rivers Museum in November 1992. During two visits to Columbia in April and August 1992 she made collections for the Museum of Columbian basketry, pottery, textiles, and other artefacts.
Birgitte Speake visited the conservation research laboratory in Amsterdam where recent research on freezing as a pest control measure had been carried out. She also visited the new energy-efficient ethnographic store at the National Museum in Denmark, which proved to be a fruitful source of ideas for the future. She also attended a one-day meeting in Bristol on varnishing, organized by the Association of British Picture Restorers.
In addition to his normal curatorial and teaching commitments Dr Donald Tayler served as Director of Studies in Archaeology and Anthropology for St Anne's and St Hugh's and served as a member of the Committee for the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was Co-ordinator for Ethnology in the Human Sciences Prelims and for Archaeology and Anthropology Mods (Paper III), and Assessor for the Geography Mods Ethnology option. He also served as Chairman of the Human Sciences Library Committee and as Chairman of the Examiners for the M.St. And M.Phil. in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, During the year he reviewed books and ethnographic films for Folklore and Visual Anthropology and, as time allowed, continued his Iberian research.
Alison Petch continued to work part-time on the Upper Gallery project, the remainder of her time being spent on the edition of the Spencer and Gillen correspondence, on which she has been working with Howard Morphy. She undertook the research and documentation for all the new exhibits on the south side and west end of the Upper Gallery, working closely with John Simmons and Chris Wilkinson, who have been constructing the displays, as well as with the photographer Malcolm Osman and the Conservation Department. The displays of weapons (adhering to the Pitt Rivers Museum principle of achieving the highest-density displays possible, but also including plenty of information) are interspersed with cultural exhibits devoted to the Nagas and the Nuer and Dinka peoples of the Sudan. In addition she produced a companion guide to the Upper Gallery, appropriately entitled Hunting for the Right Weapon. This will be on sale in the Museum Shop as soon as the Gallery opens.
Sandra Dudley was employed throughout the year as part-time Museum Assistant to Linda Mowat, sharing a full-time post with Cathy Gibbon who worked in the archive. During this period she also completed her M.Phil., as well as tutoring several of the Department's undergraduates. At the end of September she left the Museum to take up an internship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. We would like to record here our appreciation of her cheerful and enthusiastic efficiency even when under frequent considerable pressure.
Staff Publications
Julia Cousins, The Pitt Rivers Museum: A Souvenir Guide to the Collections, Pitt Rivers Museum (1993).
Elizabeth Edwards, 'A Reflection on Four Australian Postcards', Tourism in Focus, Vol. VI (1992), pp. 4-5.
Elizabeth Edwards, 'Wamo: Jenness's Photographs of D'Entrecasteaux', Pacific Arts, no. 5 (1992), pp. 53-6.
Elizabeth Edwards,Wilfred Thesiger's Photographs: A most Cherished possession', Pitt Rivers Museum (1993).
Helene la Rue (with Kate Arnold Forster), Museums of Music: A Review of Musical Instrument Collections in the United Kingdom, London: HMSO (1993).
Helene La Rue (ed.), CIMCIM Newsletter, Vol. XIV.
Linda Mowat, 'Four Paintings by Edward A. Goodall at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford', Journal of the History of Collections, Vol. V, no. 2 (1993), pp. 223-9.
Linda Mowat, 'Collecting Contemporary Native American Baskets', Journal of Museum Ethnography, no. 4 (December 1993), pp. 143-56.
Linda Mowat (ed), Catalogue of the Native American Collections, Pitt Rivers Museum (1993).
Linda Mowat (guest ed.), Journal of Museum Ethnography, no 4 (December 1993).
Howard Morphy, 'Gaps in Collections and Spaces for Exhibition: Reflections on the Acceptance of Aboriginal 'Art' in Europe and Australia', Aboriginal Art in the Public Eye (supplement to Art Monthly Australia, no. 56 (Dec. 1992 - Feb. 1993)), pp. 10-12.
Howard Morphy, 'Cultural Adaption', in Human Adaption (ed. G.A. Harrison), Oxford University Press (1993), pp. 99-150.
Howard Morphy, Aratjara', Art Monthly Australia, no.63 (September 1993), pp. 17-18.
Alison Petch, Hunting for the Right Weapon: A Guide to the Upper Gallery of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum (in press).
The James A. Swan Fund
On 31 July 1992 the total assets of the James A. Swan Fund were £36,812. During the year thirteen grants, totalling £17,490, were given in support of a variety of research projects, mostly archaeological.
The Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre
The year has been marked by a succession of disturbances, including electrical testing of the whole premises and some rewiring, and a separate wiring operation providing a connection to the University's Ethernet. Less satisfactory was the loss of our flint-knapping area when the eastern edge of our site was commandeered as a route for contractors' heavy vehicles passing to and from a building site behind 56 Banbury Road. This important facility has not yet been replaced despite an need for it. We still await work inside 60 Banbury Road to improve fire safety - a substantial operation affecting every room, which we had hoped would take place in vacation time, but which is now expected to fall in the busiest teaching period of next academic year. The boiler replacement at no. 60, a unit which also heats the Balfour Building, was begun during this reporting period and as Autumn draws near it is far from being completed. It is to be hoped that the early human populations whom we study had more peaceful lives.
Nevertheless the Centre continues its operations as the main base for graduate Prehistoric Archaeology at Oxford, and has welcomed over a hundred visitors during the year. The new Computer Room has been used intensively, and is a magnificent asset. A fax machine has been installed, for which we are all grateful. Mr Inskeep took sabbatical leave in 1993 during Hilary and Trinity terms. Mr Britton's successor , Dr Chris Gosden, has now been appointed, but he will not arrive until January 1994. Regular field trips directed by those associated with the Centre have continued, that is those of Dr W H Waldren in Mallorca and Dr K. Scott at Stanton Harcourt. Dr Waldren also organized a third International Conference at Deia, Mallorca, in September 1993, this time on 'Rites, Ritual, and Religion in Prehistoric Archaeology'. Dr Scott's excavation became an Earthwatch project for the first time this year and several teams of volunteers assisted her in the recovery of excellent faunal and other remains from the interglacial channel at Dix's Pit. Considerable publicity, including television coverage, attended the transfer by RAF helicopter of a particularly large and fine mammoth tusk fro the site to a field laboratory. One of the research students at the Centre, Mrs J. Scott-Jackson, conducted a highly successful small excavation in East Kent, finding part of an in situ Lower Palaeolithic working site on high chalk downland.
Dr Derek Roe provided teaching on Palaeolithic Archaeology and related topics for the M.St. Courses in Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, and Ethnology and Museum Ethnography. He also gave a course of lectures in Hilary Term, and various special lectures for undergraduates. He lectured to each of the Earthwatch teams taking part in the Stanton Harcourt excavations, and gave a special lecture to final-year archaeology students from Reading University. In the summer he visited a number of British Palaeolithic sites where fieldwork is currently in progress. In August he went to south-east Spain as leader of the British team in a joint Anglo-Spanish research project funded by the British Council under its 'Acciones Integradas' programme, to study and report on local Early and Middle Palaeolithic sites. He lectured on several occasions during this visit. In Britain he continued to assist the work of the Southern Rivers Project, and undertook much of the editing of Dr M. D. Leakey's forthcoming monograph on the upper beds of Olduvai Gorge. He examined a Ph.D. theses for Cambridge University.
Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum
Felicity Wood reports that the 1992-93 lecture programme started with the Beatrice Blackwood Lecture given by Philippe Descola at the Maison Francaise in October. His lecture was entitled 'Mental Objects: Some Thoughts on the Cultural Origins of Techniques'. Accommodation for the speaker and the reception following the lecture were kindly provided by the Director of the Maison Francaise, Professor Levy. Also in the Autumn there was a similar discussion between Howard Morphy of the Pitt Rivers, Susanne Kulchler of University College, London, and John Picton of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, entitled 'Art and the Person In Arnhem Land, New Ireland, and Nigeria'.
In the Spring and Summer of the 1992-93 the Friends arranged the following lectures: 'Tajikistan: The Case for a Zoroastrian Identity', by Shahin Bekhradnia, a postgraduate student in anthropology at Oxford; 'Hide and Seek: Performance and Commentary in African and European Masquerades', by Cesare Poppi of the University of East Anglia; 'Collecting Japanese Ceramics: Folk Pottery from the North-Eastern (Tohoku) Region of Japan', by David Hale, lecturer, author, potter, and collector of ceramics; 'Consuming Culture: "Tell Me What You Eat and I Will Tell You What You Are", by Jeremy MacClancy of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford; 'Architecture and Oysters: New Evidence from the Empire of Chimor (Peru)', by Joanne Pillsbury of the University of East Anglia; 'An Artist's Museum? From China to the Pitt Rivers', by David Paskett, artist, 'Europe, Asia or the Arctic? Ethnographic Collections in the Sakhalin Museum', by Christine Holmes, formerly of the National Museum of New Zealand.
On the social side, about 125 people attended a most enjoyable Christmas party for Friends and their guests. The ground floor of the Museum, including the shop, was open. There was a raffle organized by Linda Gelens, an inventive quiz compiled by Sally Owen, and a hunt for some Christmas objects hidden in the museum. There was music played on a Balinese gender wayang and on an accordion as well as some Christmas songs. Following David Plaskett's lecture Friends attended a preview of an exhibition of his paintings, some of which were painted in China or Hong Kong, but many of which were painted in the museum. Many Friends also attended the opening of the exhibition of Wilfred Thesiger's photographs. All those present will remember this great explorer and traveller and his photographic records of a post era. Following the final lecture, there was a 'pot luck' supper , which rounded off the year in style.
At the AGM in June some small changes in the constitution were agreed, including the clause that now reads: 'ordinary members of Council should be elected for three years and shall be eligible for re-election at the AGM'. Perhaps prompted by this, the following members stepped down, with the warm thanks of all the Friends for the work they had done over the years: Professor Geoffrey Harrison after nine years, Valerie Vowles after six years, Anne Lonsdale after five years, and Larry Bachmann after three. Christine Wrigley stepped down after four years as Treasurer, but remains on the Council. Tim Brierly joined the Council as Honarary Treasurer and Clare Austyn as an ordinary member. The AGM was followed by refreshments and a showing of the film ' Mpngo: The Tree that Makes Music'.
Membership stood at 152 at the time of the AGM. Forty-three new members have joined since the last AGM and there were fewer 'losses' than in the past, a trend that we all hope will continue. Publicity appears to be a key factor in increasing both membership and the number of people attending lectures. There is now an established system for generating and distributing posters, and gradually links are being built with other like-minded groups and individuals. The Friends' Newsletter continues to be successful, and where there was once concern that there might not be enough material, now the problem is how to fit everything in. Friends continue to help in the Balfour Library. This year the Friends also made a contribution of £250 towards the purchase of a collection of Chinese Embroidery. The Friends are most grateful to the Director and all the Museum staff for their help and co-operation. We seem to have a good symbiotic relationship.
