Oceania – at the Royal Academy of Art, London 29 September – 10 December 2018 The Royal Albert Memorial Museum is very fortunate to loan a very rare Pacific costume to the Oceania exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London later this year. Oceania marks 250 years since Captain Cook’s […]
Random object
Mbrammuo
The Asante used small weights such as this to measure out specific amounts of gold for centuries. The weights were often decorated with geometric patterns, and were made in Ghana from the 1400s. Their production and use were then banned by the colonial administration in the late 1800s.
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Pacific Category
Masks and masking
Masks and masking by volunteer Rebecca Vicary-Smith Masks assume a variety of roles and they are present in every society in one form or another. Masks are worn primarily as part of a costume or they can be used as a method of defence. The primary purpose of the masking tradition is to hide the wearer’s […]
Re-display update
Re-display update – Discovering Worlds project Visitors making their way through the first floor galleries in RAMM will have noticed a large section of the World Cultures gallery has been blocked off with tall blue-painted hoarding (see image below left). Blue hoarding The Discovering Worlds […]
Project partners: the benefits
Project partners: what are the benefits Last week, as part of the Discovering Worlds project I visited the Sainsbury Research Unit (SRU) at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts. This brief sabbatical had four aims; To meet up with current project partners to discuss updates on collection information. To use the research library so that I can start […]
50 shades of brown
50 shades of brown Over the last year we have seen a number of team mates help to develop the Discovering Worlds project. This includes a wide variety of essential tasks including the processing of object information of the collection database, taking measurements of objects and photography. The example on the left hand side shows former team mate […]
New display work
The display cases that will show objects from the island cultures of the Pacific Ocean (a vast region we call Oceania) are about to be transformed. We have already taken down the objects from this part of the gallery so these cases look empty. All of the objects have been taken down and were safely removed to the on-site […]
When is a banana not a banana? Part 1
This is the story of a mystery object. It’s also an important lesson in valuing/ preserving historic museum documentation. The Discovering Worlds project aims to open up RAMM’s Pacific collection by applying new academic research and transforming the new gallery with this information. One item that has come to light is described as a ‘preserved banana‘ and it’s […]