Introduction
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Henrietta Lidchi
Abstract
The trajectory into the collections of National Museums Scotland made by two horn cups is explored as a means to discuss military culture and collections of the non-European world. Both cups are associated with storming at the fortress city of Maqdala, Ethiopia in 1868. These objects are examined here from a shared, interdisciplinary perspective embracing museum anthropology and military history. They represent the products of one end of a range of collecting practices, running from looting through to scientific collecting, and between which the boundaries are not always clear. The stories of their acquisition, and of their afterlives as museum objects, open up some of the complexities and fascinating ambiguities which can emerge from close study of material of this kind. These, and similar objects preserved in military collections across the UK, raise questions about the relationship between the British Army and Empire, the culture and practices of appropriation, collecting and memorialisation in British military culture, about the fluidity of the terminology applied to such objects, and about the challenges and opportunities inherent in interpreting such objects for museum visitors in the post-colonial era.
Abstract
The trajectory into the collections of National Museums Scotland made by two horn cups is explored as a means to discuss military culture and collections of the non-European world. Both cups are associated with storming at the fortress city of Maqdala, Ethiopia in 1868. These objects are examined here from a shared, interdisciplinary perspective embracing museum anthropology and military history. They represent the products of one end of a range of collecting practices, running from looting through to scientific collecting, and between which the boundaries are not always clear. The stories of their acquisition, and of their afterlives as museum objects, open up some of the complexities and fascinating ambiguities which can emerge from close study of material of this kind. These, and similar objects preserved in military collections across the UK, raise questions about the relationship between the British Army and Empire, the culture and practices of appropriation, collecting and memorialisation in British military culture, about the fluidity of the terminology applied to such objects, and about the challenges and opportunities inherent in interpreting such objects for museum visitors in the post-colonial era.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xi
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- List of abbreviations xix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Ideologies of empire and governance
- 1 Spoils of war 19
- 2 The agency of objects 39
- 3 Collecting and the trophy 60
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Part II: Military collecting cultures
- 4 Soldiering archaeology 85
- 5 The officers’ mess 106
- 6 Seeing Tibet through soldiers’ eyes 128
- 7 A regimental culture of collecting 162
- 8 Military histories of ‘Summer Palace’ objects from China in military museums in the United Kingdom 187
- 9 Indigenising folk art 205
- 10 Community consultation and the shaping of the National Army Museum’s Insight gallery 229
- 11 Mementoes of power and conquest 247
- Afterword 269
- Archival sources 284
- Bibliography 287
- Index 314
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- List of contributors xi
- Preface xv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- List of abbreviations xix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Ideologies of empire and governance
- 1 Spoils of war 19
- 2 The agency of objects 39
- 3 Collecting and the trophy 60
-
Part II: Military collecting cultures
- 4 Soldiering archaeology 85
- 5 The officers’ mess 106
- 6 Seeing Tibet through soldiers’ eyes 128
- 7 A regimental culture of collecting 162
- 8 Military histories of ‘Summer Palace’ objects from China in military museums in the United Kingdom 187
- 9 Indigenising folk art 205
- 10 Community consultation and the shaping of the National Army Museum’s Insight gallery 229
- 11 Mementoes of power and conquest 247
- Afterword 269
- Archival sources 284
- Bibliography 287
- Index 314
