Related Collections Held at Other Institutions

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) at the University of Cambridge, UK, was founded in 1884. The museum is particularly noted for its Pacific collections, which include material from the eighteenth century voyages of Captain James Cook and other early British explorers, the Museum’s founding collections from Fiji, and the pioneering anthropological fieldwork of Alfred Haddon and the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait.

The MAA has photographs and objects from both the Torres Strait Islands and British New Guinea from the 1898 Cambridge Expedition (C80), as well as material related to the 1904 Daniels Ethnographical Expedition (C62), the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Solomon Islands in 1908 (C108), the John Layard 1914–1915 Atchin, New Hebrides Cylinder Collection (C177), and the Paul Montague 1914 Gondé, New Caledonia Cylinder Collection (C671).

The MAA has three different catalogues for objects, photographs and documents. To find related items, select “Switch to advanced search” option and add your search terms under the different fields e.g. Description, Place, Collector and Data. You can combine different fields to create more complex searches.

The British Museum was founded in 1753 and opened its doors in 1759. The Museum brings together the cultures of the world under one roof and its 8 million objects allow us to explore the extraordinary diversity of human cultures.

The British Museum has collections and objects related to Dr Bronisław Malinowski’s research in the Trobriand Islands (C46), the Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea in 1904 (C62), and Thomas Edge-Partington’s time in Solomon Islands (C83 Edge-Partington).

To find items collected by Malinowski, visit his Related Objects page on the Museum’s catalogue.

To view objects and photographs from the 1904 Daniels Expedition, search using the phrase “Cooke-Daniels Ethnographical Expedition” (with quotation marks). There is also some information on Seligmann on this page and Major William Cooke Daniels on this page.

Photographs relating to Thomas Edge-Partington can be seen via his Related Objects page via this link. The collection that his widow Mary donated to the British Museum in 1921 can be viewed on the Related Objects page here.

LSE Library was founded as the British Library of Political and Economic Science in 1896 and is the main library of the London School of Economics and Politics Science (LSE). The archive collections focus on modern British political and economic history and the development of social science in Britain. Their archives and special collections can be browsed via the Archives Catalogue.

The papers of Dr Bronisław Malinowski include papers related to this research in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea. The collection (reference MALINOWSKI) can be found here.

The papers of Charles G. Seligman include material related to the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands (C80) and the Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea in 1904 (C62).

SOAS Library is one of the world’s most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The papers of Sidney Herbert Ray – sound recordist during the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands – are held here and mainly relate to the languages and ethnology of the Pacific Islands. The collection can be browsed via this link.

The Library also hold copies of Ray’s journal and letters from 1898-1899. The originals are held in the Michael Somare Library at the University of Papua New Guinea. More information can be found via this link and digitised copies can be seen via SOAS Digital Collections either via this link or searching ‘Sidney Herbert Ray’.

Cambridge University Library in the UK is one of the world’s oldest university libraries and holds a number of significant archival collections, including the papers of Professor Alfred Cort Haddon, leader of the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands. This collection also includes the papers of fellow expedition members Charles S. Myers and Anthony Wilkin, as well as WHR Rivers who also recorded wax cylinders during his time in Solomon Islands in 1908.

The Haddon Papers were digitised as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) and can be browsed via Trove, an online catalogue that brings together collections from across Australia.

University of California, San Diego Library holds a number of collections related to Oceania, which are primarily drawn from the Tuzin Archive for Melanesian Anthropology. The Tuzin Archive is comprised primarily of the personal papers of anthropologists who conducted research on the cultures of the southwest Pacific Islands.

The Library includes the papers of John Willoughby Layard, who made sound recordings during his research on Atchin, Vanuatu between 1914 and 1915. The full collection can be browsed via their catalogue.

The Alexander Turnbull Library – now part of the National Library of New Zealand / Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa – was founded in 1919. It is housed within the National Library building in Wellington and holds New Zealand’s national documentary heritage collections.

The Library holds the papers of Arthur M. Hocart, who made recordings during the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Solomon Islands in 1908 (C108). This collection can be accessed via Tiaki, the Alexander Turnbull Library’s catalogue for unpublished collections.

The Pitt Rivers Museum was founded in 1884 and displays the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford, UK. The Museum’s collections can be browsed using their online databases, including information on object, photograph and manuscript collections. Find out more via this link.

Please note that Pitt Rivers Museum are currently creating a new Collections Online resource, which is planned for late 2022. The current online database will not be updated with any new information until that time.

The Museum holds the papers of ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen, which include John Layard’s original notes, articles and correspondence related to his research on Atchin, Vanuatu, in 1914-1915.

The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv includes more than 16,000 wax cylinders and shellac gramophone records, representing music from around the world. In 1934, the collection became affiliated with the Museum für Völkerkunde (now Ethnologisches Museum – Staatliche Museen Berlin).

The catalogue can be viewed via this link, and includes cylinders recorded by Charles S. Myers, sound recordist on the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands.

The British Film Institute (BFI) was founded in 1933 and is the UK’s lead organisation for film and moving image. Their catalogue is available to search via this link.

The BFI holds film footage recorded by Professor Alfred Cort Haddon during the 1898 Cambridge Expedition to the Torres Strait Islands. It also has a number of recordings from the 1904 Daniels Ethnographical Expedition to British New Guinea.