The Lost Salford Sioux
Several months ago now I had the good fortune to meet playwright Anjum Malik. Anjum was conducting research into the Native American performers who accompanied Buffalo Bill during their stay in Salford in the later 19th century. This research formed the basis of her play which was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to celebrate the opening of the BBC North’s new premises at Salford Quays in 2011. I was able to share with Anjum some of the wonderful archival material in the Living Cultures collection related to this historical event, specifically the portrait of Oglala Lakota Chief Red Shirt as taken by Salfordian photographer C.R. Brandis.
Red Shirt, Oglala Lokota Chief, Late 19th Century, Salford, UK. The Manchester Museum Living Cultures collection, 2012.
Reverse of Red Shirt portrait showing Brandis stamp, Late 19th Century, Salford, UK. The Manchester Museum Living Cultures collection, 2012.
Excitingly the completed play will be broadcast this coming Sunday at 20:30. Anjum has kindly acknowledged the support of the Museum on the BBC Radio 3 webpage, for more information please follow the link below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0195pz0
Do tune in!
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Installation Design and the Exhibition of Oceanic Things: Two New York Museums in the 1940s
On Wednesday 9th November , Kanaris Theatre, the Manchester Museum, from 3pm onwards Professor Robert Foster, University of Rochester, New York, will be presenting his paper:
Installation Design and the Exhibition of Oceanic Things: Two New York Museums in the 1940s
Further information regarding Professor Fosters research can be found at:
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3771
The presentation is a result of ongoing collaboration between the Museum and the University of Manchester Pacific Interest Group and Department of Social Anthropology. The Manchester Museum has an international significant Oceanic collection with over 7000 objects including textiles, weapons, tools, masks and carvings.
Bone and shell fish hook, Maori, New Zealand. 1800-1900. The Manchester Museum Living Cultures collection.
Spaces are limited so if you would like to attend do be punctual!
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Gateway to Asia
The Manchester Museum recently became an official member of Virtual Collection of Masterpieces, an ASEMUS – The Asia Europe Museum Network project. The sheer quality and international significance of the Living Cultures Asia collection secured our inclusion.
The Oriental Gallery, The Manchester Museum, 1980s.
We’re in good company, as other fellow members include such esteemed institutions as:
- The British Museum
- The Museum of World Cultures, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
- National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan
- National Museum of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea
The aim of the project is to showcase and share information about the very many wonderful Asian collections which reside in European and Asian museums. We currently have 10 records online which you can view by following the link below:
http://masterpieces.asemus.museum/singleMuseum.aspx?museumid=36af801a-ce25-4a5d-9b57-296c8b603dae
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Mana Maori and a Mongolian Bow
Last week saw the welcome return of several of the Living Cultures collection exceptional Maori objects. In October 2010 the objects were loaned to the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, the Netherlands. They were included in the stunning exhibition Mana Maori: The Power of New Zealand’s First Inhabitants which ran from October 2010 until May 2011. The Living Cultures collection is home to over 250 Maori objects, a significant amount of which are of international importance. One such object is the 19th century kuwaha, or carved doorway, which many visitors to Mana Maori saw for the very first time.
0.7857, Maori Kuwaha, Aotearoa, 19th century. The Manchester Museum Living Cultures Collection.
Furthermore, last week also saw the arrival of Mongolian performance artist Enkhbold Togmidshiirev as part of the Asia Triennial arts festival. Not only was Enkhbold able to give a wonderful performance using his traditional Mongolian ger, or tent, and a lecture, he was also able to see some of the Mongolian bows and arrows in the Archery collection. In an enlightening discussion Honorary Curator of Archery Wendy Hodkinson and Enkhbold shared their enthusiasm, experience and knowledge of the objects. The moment was captured in the images below, in which you can see Wendy, Enkhbold and interpreter Tsendpurev Tsegmid.
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Cultural Contumacy?
Over the past several days the media has been awash with theories which claim to identify the cause of the recent English riots. One of the most controversial theories, as confidentially articulated by historian David Starkey, is that so-called Black culture is to blame. Starkey’s comments have reignited a national debate on the relationship between race and culture.
19th century anthropologists viewed culture as a static phenomenon attributed to particular racial groups. Crude notions of cultural sophistication were developed which seemingly proved the superiority of European culture. Objects like those in the Living Cultures collection were used to demonstrate the assumed primitive nature of non-European cultures, particularly those in Africa. This cultural primitivism was believed to have caused moral impoverishment, the jingoistic remedy for which was colonial intervention.
British officers meeting with the Sobo people, Nigeria, Africa, late 19th century. The Living Cultures collection, the Manchester Museum.
Shockingly the idea that African and Black culture is somehow negative is still perpetuated. So too is the absurd notion that culture is inextricably linked with race and cannot transcend it. Over several decades individuals, communities and organisations, such as the Manchester Museum, have worked tirelessly to confront and extinguish these myths.
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
International Understanding and Cooperation
The Manchester Museum, like so many encyclopaedic museums, plays a critical role in fostering international understanding and cooperation. The Museum accomplishes this through insightful exhibitions, collaborating with community partners and sharing expertise and experience with international colleagues. The Living Cultures collection frequently forms the basis of this work as the 18,000 objects are evidence of intercultural engagement from the 19th century onwards.
Stephen Terence Welsh, Curator of Living Cultures, examining Chinese porcelain in the Manchester Museum Resource Centre with colleagues from Wuhan Municipal Museum, China.
Most recently the Museum hosted 3 curators who were participants on the International Training Programme as coordinated by the British Museum. The Museum collaborates with the British Museum on this programme each year as the chance to converse with international colleagues is invaluable. This years curators Francisco Noelli, Levent Boz and Joyee Roy were especially interested in the use of post-colonial critique in the Museum’s approach to community engagement, exhibition development and the Living Cultures collection. You can see their appraisal of their time spent with us at:
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
From Manchester to Sheffield and Liverpool
On the 26th June 2011 our most recent and celebrated temporary exhibition China: Journey to the East closed to the public. The exhibition has been with us for 9 months and was supposed to be heading home to the British Museum but instead will open in Weston Park, Sheffield later in the year. This new addition to the tour schedule proves just how popular the topic of China is with museum visitors and users alike. The exhibition has allowed the Manchester Museum to affirm its relationship with Manchester’s Chinese community and it will hopefully develop as we explore future opportunities for collaboration.
This Chinese porcelain tea-pot is currently on display in the Manchester Gallery with other fascinating objects from China. It dates to the early 20th century and was donated by Robert Dukinfield Darbishire. Hopefully, we'll be able to exhibit much more of our Chinese collection in the Manchester Gallery in the not too distant future.
In other news we’ve finally completed the transfer of an object from the Living Cultures collection to the International Slavery Museum, Liverpool. The object in question is a punishment collar from a 19th century plantation in the USA. It would have been placed around the necks of enslaved Africans who had attempted to escape. It had been on loan to the International Slavery Museum for several years so it made perfect sense to make the transfer. The process of transferring objects from one museum collection to another is often called rationalisation, and it has been occurring since museums began. The punishment collar is better placed in the International Slavery Museum as it is an institution dedicated to exploring the very many experiences, histories and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade.
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Go West
As a young child in the 1980s I have vague memories of watching a Japanese television show called Monkey. The show was an explosion of martial arts, monsters and magic. The electro-psychedelic theme tune by Godiego was particularly catchy. It wasn’t until the early 2000s as a student when I rediscovered this cult Japanese show, it was a welcome distraction from late night study.
The show was of course a 1970s interpretation of the 16th century Ming dynasty novel Journey to the West by author Wu Cheng’en. The novel details the adventures of the Buddhist monk Tripitaka and his 14 year and 108,000 mile odyssey, with his 3 supernatural companions Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy, to retrieve Buddhist scriptures from the Thunderclap Monastery in India.
Having realised that this piece of Japanese pop culture was actually based on a Chinese epic novel I began reading Wu Cheng’en’s text. Whilst reading volume 3 on a train a young Chinese woman was rather tickled as in her opinion I was reading a children’s story. In China the story is very popular amongst the younger generation and many animations have been based on the novel. The story has not only been a stimulus for animators but graphic novelists, computer game designers, and television, film and theatre directors too. The characters were even used by the BBC to advertise their coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
This Saturday the Manchester Museum will be celebrating all things Journey to the West including the screening of a contemporary animation. Other events will including handling Buddhist Chinese objects from the Living Cultures collection and a chance to discover more about this captivating Chinese epic. Our exhibition China: Journey to the East full of wonderful Chinese objects will be open throughout the day.
See you there,
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Queens and Cotton
With the UK press hotly debating the significance of the British Royal Family it’s fascinating to think that Victorian Manchester was a veritable monarch magnet. Queen Victoria had an intimate relationship with the city in the late 19th century but so too did a lesser known contemporary, namely Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar.
Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar, 1861 - 1917
In an attempt to deter the French from colonising Madagascar Ranavalona strengthened diplomatic and economic ties with the UK and USA. Manchester had been exporting cotton cloth to Madagascar throughout the 19th century so Ranavalona would have been acutely aware of the citys economic importance.
Tootal-Broadhurst and Lee Co Building, Victorian cotton manufacturers, Manchester
In recognition of this Ranavlona sought the favour of Sir Kenneth Lee of Tootal-Broadhurst and Lee Co, eminent Manchester cotton manufactorers. She did this by corresponding with Lee via her ambassadors and by means of a royal gift in the form of an exquisite piece of Malagasy lamba cloth. The cloth was eventually donated to the Manchester Museum by Lee’s sister-in-law Mrs. Crawley in 1936.
Malagasy lamba cloth, Madagascar, late 19th century. Living Cultures collection, the Manchester Museum
Unfortunately, Ranavalona’s attempts to stave off colonisation failed, by 1886 she was in exile and the French had seized control of the island nation. Lamba cloth sent by Ranavalona to important individuals can now be found in entnographic collections in both the UK and USA. These royal gifts are testiment to one woman’s struggle to desperately defend her kingdom.
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
Imperial Lather
With the forthcoming British Royal Family wedding the media have their microphones and lenses trained squarely on the happy couple. However, an ancestor of Prince William’s is also receiving some attention, Queen Victoria no less.
Shrabani Basu has recently updated her bookVictoria and Abdul using recently discovered archival material. The book explores Victoria’s relationship with her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Queen Victoria has captured the imagination, and frequently adulation, of the British people and beyond since she assumed the throne in 1837.
A rather out-of-place object in the Living Cultures collection demonstrates this adulation perfectly. It is a bar of soap which was donated to the Museum in 1897 by William Worthington. This particular bar of soap was believed to have been used by the Queen when she visited Manchester on 1st July 1888 to open the Victoria University. Worthington was Head Porter at the time and in the perfect position to collect the soap.
Bar of soap, Port Sunlight Soap Works, Liverpool, 1888. The Manchester Museum Living Cultures collection.
The object was clearly acquired because of it’s imperial association and to commemorate a significant event in Manchester’s history. The soap’s quality is not in doubt but whether is was used by Victoria remains dubious.
Stephen Terence Welsh
Curator of Living Cultures
