Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

Coombes, Annie E.

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Description: Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late...

BOOKReinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

Annie E. Coombes

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22479

Between 1890 and 1918, British colonial expansion in Africa led to the removal of many African artifacts that were subsequently brought to Britain and displayed. Annie Coombes argues that this activity had profound repercussions for the construction of a national identity within Britain itself—the effects of which are still with us today.

Through a series of detailed case studies, Coombes analyzes the popular and scientific knowledge of Africa which shaped a diverse public's perception of that continent: the looting and display of the Benin "bronzes" from Nigeria; ethnographic museums; the mass spectacle of large-scale international and missionary exhibitions and colonial exhibitions such as the "Stanley and African" of 1890; together with the critical reaction to such events in British national newspapers, the radical and humanitarian press and the West African press.

Coombes argues that although endlessly reiterated racial stereotypes were disseminated through popular images of all things "African," this was no simple reproduction of imperial ideology. There were a number of different and sometimes conflicting representations of Africa and of what it was to be African—representations that varied according to political, institutional, and disciplinary pressures. The professionalization of anthropology over this period played a crucial role in the popularization of contradictory ideas about African culture to a mass public.

Pioneering in its research, this book offers valuable insights for art and design historians, historians of imperialism and anthropology, anthropologists, and museologists.

*This eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Print publication date October 1994 (out of print)

Print ISBN 9780300059724

EISBN 9780300268614

Illustrations 112

Print Status out of print

Publisher (out of print)

WorldCat

Google Books

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List of illustrations

Main entrance of the British Museum during the Treasures for the Nation Exhibition
Members of the British Expedition to Benin City
A Native Chief and his Followers
Tanganyika exhibit from the Stanley and African Exhibition, detail
Benin girls with aprons of Bells
The Benin Expedition: Old Calibar Market
The Benin Disaster: Scenes in the Niger Protectorate
The Golgotha, Benin
In the Quest of Water
Captain Campbell's Brigade Bringing up the Rear in the Advance on the Town
Chief Dore and Three Other Natives Drawing a Rough Plan of Benin City with Matches, Paper and Cork
Drawing a Plan of Benin City
Commemorative Altar Head (Head of an Oba)
Bronze figure of an Iwoki Guild Member
Spoils of Benin in the Horniman Free Museum at Forest Hill
Brass Sistrums from Benin
Brass Staff Head from Benin
Brass Aegis from Benin
Brass Vase from Benin
Commemorative Head of Queen Mother
Plate showing the gradual degeneration from realism to abstraction
Plate showing the transition from realism to abstraction on the ornamentation of paddles from New Ireland
Map of Africa showing Henry Morgan Stanley's route
General view of the Stanley and African Exhibition, Victoria Gallery, London
General view of the exhibits at the Stanley and African Exhibition, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from East Central Africa, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from Tanganyika, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from Lower Niger Region, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from the Congo Basin, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from Nyssaland, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from Central South Africa, Victoria Gallery, London
The Stanley and African Exhibition display from Masailand, Kilimanjaro, Victoria Gallery, London
Page from the sketchbook of William Steains showing a calabash or gourd vessel from Ilorin, Nigeria
Page from the sketchbook of William Steains showing carving on two weapons and a travelling stick
Page from the sketchbook of William Steains showing an Ikenga and Ibeji figure from Nigeria
A postcard of Gootoo and Inyokwana
Gootoo and Inyokwana at the Stanley and African Exhibition
Wrestlers
Scene in the Kraal
Cooking in the Kraal
Wrestlers in the Dahomey Village
A Family Party
Fashion of Carrying a Child
Mother and Children
Plan of the battle at Bembisi during the Matabele Wars
Artist's impression of the battle of Shangani River during the Matabele Wars
Artist's impression of the battle of Bembisi during the Matabele Wars
Portrait Gallery of Munificencies
The Horniman Museum, interior view
Guide to Visitors, the Horniman Museum
Poster advertising the Surrey House Museum
Plate showing the evolutionary relationships of Australian weapons
Henry Balfour in a gallery of the Pitt Rivers Museum
The Principal Forms of Ornamentations Employed by Savages
The Traveller's Anthropometer
Plate from Notes and Queries on Anthropology
Plate from Notes and Queries on Anthropology
Plate from Notes and Queries on Anthropology
Individuals supposedly demonstrating physiognomic characteristics amongst different tribal affiliations
A group of Zulu women
Bokane
Bokane
Bokane
Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, view of the collections
Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, display case
Unsolicited proof of the realism of Bushman paintings
The Evolution of the Bow, display case
Frederick Horniman with friends and family in the Ethnographical Salon of Surrey House Museum
Interior of the South Hall of the Horniman Museum
Interior of the South Hall of the Horniman Museum
Interior of the South Hall of the Horniman Museum
Selection of pipes from East Africa in the Horniman Museum
Pages from W.D. Webster's Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens
Pages from W.D. Webster's Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens
Items donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum by Reverend William Allen
The London Missionary Society Museum
Wooden representations of the spirits of ancestors from Central Africa
Front cover of the London Missionary Society magazine (The Exhibition Herald)
View of the London Missionary Society exhibition, The Orient in London
Ground floor and first floor plan of the London Missionary Society exhibiton, The Orient in London
Ground floor and first floor plan of the London Missionary Society exhibiton, The Orient in London
The African Village at The Orient in London exhibition
The Central African Court at The Orient in London exhibition
The Central African Court at The Orient in London exhibition
Plan of the pageant hall and the Street of Religions at The Orient in London exhibition
General view of the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The Flip Flap at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The Court of Honour at the Franco-British Exhibition
The Algerian Pavilion at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The Indian Palace at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
Carpet Weaving
A Woman from the Ouled-Nail
A Street in Biskra
The Productivity of a Date Palm Plantation
Wooden showcase
The Malborough Cotton Ginnery at Ibadan
Transporting Boiler to Bitumen Works
The Senegal Village, cover of the programme
The Senegalese Village at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
Racial Contrasts under the British Flag and Dusky Beauty and Ugliness Under the British Flag
Young Negress
The entrance to the Senagalese Village at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The entrance to the Irish Village Bally-maclinton at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The Colleens dancing in the Irish Village at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
The Colleens dancing in the Irish Village at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
Women firemen: The Colleens' Brigade at the Franco-British Exhibition, White City
Irish Village, newspaper clipping
The interior of Bally-maclinton
Glass doors at the entrance to the Museum of Mankind, London
Benin bronzes at the top of the main staircase at the front entrance to the British Museum, London
Benin bronzes at the top of the main staircase at the front entrance to the British Museum, London, detail
Poster for Black History Week

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Contents

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

Contents

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22480

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Acknowledgments

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~A project of this kind can only be accomplished with the help and encouragement of many friends and individuals. To some I owe a special thanks. Ihsahan el Fahdel and her daughters Imman and Hannan shared their home and their friendship with me. I am especially indebted to them and to the staff and students at both Shendi and Kassala Secondary Schools for...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22481

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Introduction

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

Walking past the imposing but familiar façade of the British Museum some time in 1989, I was stunned by an altogether unfamiliar sight. There, in the forecourt of the Museum, was an armoured vehicle from the First World War, virtually blocking the main entrance of the building (fig. 1). Nestling beneath a...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.1-6

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.1

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22482

Chapter subject tags:Material cultureMuseums--Great BritainImperialismEthnologyFoucault, Michel, 1926-1984Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th century

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1. Material Culture at the Crossroads of Knowledge: The Case of the Benin ‘Bronzes’

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

Between them these two statements, both written in the late nineteenth century about different aspects of Benin culture, encapsulate the essential ambivalence of the European colonial response to material culture from West Africa and other colonies. These commentaries confusingly register an admiration of Benin culture according to western European aesthetic criteria, while simultaneously...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.7-28

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.2

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22483

Chapter subject tags:Benin--HistoryObjectification (Social psychology)ImperialismMaterial cultureMuseums--Great Britain

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2. Voices in the Wilderness: Critics of Empire

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~In 1897, James Pinnock, a trader and merchant on the Benin River for over thirty-five years, published his pamphlet Benin, the Surrounding Country, Inhabitants, Customs and Trade.Pinnock (1897). Originally given as a lecture to various regional geographical societies, it is an...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.29-42

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.3

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22484

Chapter subject tags:Transatlantic slave tradeImperialismRacism in anthropologyMiscegenation

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3. Aesthetic Pleasure and Institutional Power

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~In the 1890s, debates on the origins of art and the nature of ornament constituted a considerable proportion of both ethnographic and art historical discourse. ‘Degeneration’ was a key concept in such discussions.It should not be...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.43-62

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.4

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22485

Chapter subject tags:DegenerationMuseums--Great BritainArt, BenineseEthnological museums and collectionsRacism in anthropology

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4. The Spectacle of Empire I: Expansionism and Philanthropy at the Stanley and African Exhibition

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

The ‘spectatorial lust’ that John Atkinson Hobson defined as an indispensable corollary of imperialism reached its apogee in a phenomenon which had its beginnings in the Great Exhibition of 1851. By 1890, national, international and colonial exhibitions became the arena for renewed entrepreneurial...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.63-84

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.5

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22486

Chapter subject tags:ExhibitionsStanley, Henry M. (Henry Morton), 1841-1904Ethnological expeditionsObjectification (Social psychology)Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th century

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5. The Spectacle of Empire II: Exhibitionary Narratives

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~~The relationship between popular and scientific domains of knowledge relating to Africa, in exhibitions not under the aegis of a specifically...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.85-108

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.6

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22487

Chapter subject tags:Objectification (Social psychology)ExhibitionsRacism in anthropologyImperialism

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6. Temples of Empire: The Museum and Its Publics

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~It is clear from the previous chapters that certain assumptions about race and racial characteristics, in relation to Africa, were already common currency among at least a substantial middle-class public. That such assumptions were also associated at some level with the rise of...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.109-128

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.7

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22488

Chapter subject tags:Material cultureMuseums--Great BritainImperialismEthnological museums and collectionsPitt Rivers MuseumHorniman, Frederick John, 1835-1906

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7. Containing the Continent: Ethnographies on Display

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~What place did the African continent occupy within the broader schemes of the ‘new museum idea’, promoted by that relatively new breed, the professional museum curator? What kind of knowledge was generated from the impetus to use ethnographic collections as the basis of an ‘objective’ education, and was such knowledge completely...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.129-160

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.8

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22489

Chapter subject tags:Ethnological museums and collectionsMuseums--Great BritainRacism in anthropologyObjectification (Social psychology)Pitt Rivers MuseumGardiner, H. Balfour (Henry Balfour), 1877-1950

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8. ‘For God and for England’: Missionary Contributions to an Image of Africa

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~If the ethnographic collection in the local or national museum can now be seen as the site of production of a tacit consent for some of the tenets of the imperial project (while simultaneously...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.161-186

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.9

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22490

Chapter subject tags:Evangelistic work--Missionary ChurchImperialismExhibitionsMuseums--Great BritainMissionary Society (London, England)Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th century

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9. National Unity and Racial and Ethnic Identities: The Franco-British Exhibition of 1908

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~Over the period 1902 to 1910, the constitution of a ‘national’ culture was a feature of the bid for political ascendancy by both Tory and Liberal administrations in Britain. It is a factor which makes this a particularly valuable historical moment for untangling the ambiguous and highly equivocal nature of national identity, specifically in terms of its...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.187-213

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.10

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22491

Chapter subject tags:White City (London, England)ImperialismPublic opinion--Great Britain--History--19th centuryObjectification (Social psychology)Racism in anthropology

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Conclusion

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~The categorisation and racialisation of the African continent occupied an important place in both the scientific and the popular imaginations of late Victorian and Edwardian England. Through the taxonomies and descriptions devised to orchestrate African material culture in museums and exhibitions nationwide, and through the incorporation of Africans as part of...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.214-216

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.11

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22492

Chapter subject tags:Public opinion--Great Britain--History--19th centuryImperialismRacism in anthropology

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Epilogue: Inventing the ‘Post-Colonial’

Annie E. Coombes

Reinventing Africa: Museums, Material Culture and Popular Imagination in Late Victorian and Edwardian England

~Clearly, it would be overdetermined to presume a tidy continuum between ideologies marking the formation of anthropology as a discipline in the early twentieth century, and the present ‘post-colonial’ context. I want to suggest, however, that some vestiges of these earlier preoccupations remain at the root of contemporary debates on the value of...

Author

Annie E. Coombes

PublisherYale University Press

Related print edition pages: pp.217-225

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00307.12

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-22493

Chapter subject tags:PostcolonialismMaterial cultureCultural fusionMuseums--Great Britain

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