For Science, Salvage, and State
Papua New Guinea’s Earliest Colonial Museums
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9075144 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Edmundson (0000-0002-3448-925X, Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 54 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 96-115 |
| Publication date | 2019-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Pacific History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3344 • E-ISSN: 1469-9605 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00223344.2018.1541132 |
| OpenAlex | W2903448174 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
In recent years, growing attention has been paid to the complex relationship between museums, collecting and colonialism in the Southwest Pacific. This paper contributes to this wider body of research by presenting a baseline study of Papua New Guinea’s two earliest museums: an Economic Museum built in 1907 and an Anthropology Museum initiated in 1907, but not built until 1914. Both museums were financed and run by government departments within the newly established Australian Territory of Papua. Both were imbricated in contemporary colonial agendas aimed at mapping, classifying and, ultimately, exploiting the natural and human resources of the colony. However, their histories also reveal significant differences in the personal and political agendas of their respective founders, Miles ‘Staniforth’ Smith and Hubert Murray, who in 1907 were in direct competition for the position of inaugural lieutenant-governor of the Territory. In the internecine rivalries of the day their respective museums provided each of them with a platform to publically demonstrate his aptitude and vision for governing the new colony
Archaeology · Colonialism · Ethnology · Government (linguistics) · Governor · New guinea · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Anthropology · History · Law · Museums and Cultural Heritage · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2024 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |