The Rediscovery of a Society Islands Tamau, or Headdress of Human Hair, in the "Cook-Voyage" Forster Collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum - and a Possible Provenance

Authors

  • Jeremy Coote Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
  • Jeremy Uden Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.122.3.233-256

Abstract

In July 2010, a Society Islands tamau, or headdress of human hair, collected on James Cook's second famous Pacific voyage of 1772-74, which had been missing since 1776, was "rediscovered" at the University of Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum. A report of its rediscovery is followed by a technical description, an account of its conservation, and a partly speculative discussion of its history and provenance.

Author Biographies

Jeremy Coote, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Jeremy Coote is Curator and Joint Head of  Collections at the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, where he has worked since 1994. Trained as a social anthropologist, with research interests in South Sudan and East Africa, since joining the staff of the Museum his research has focussed on the history of its early collections and, in particular, on identifying the full extent of the Cook voyage collections and researching their history.

Jeremy Uden, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Jeremy Uden is Deputy Head of Conservation at the University of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum, where he has worked since 2008. Trained first as a biologist, before training as a conservator, he has worked in a number of museums in the UK as well as at Auckland Museum. He is currently the holder of a Clothworkers Foundation Conservation Senior Fellowship (2012-14), during which he is researching and conserving the Cook voyage collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

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Published

2013-12-21

Issue

Vol. 122 No. 3 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

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