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Oriental art and the popular fancy: Otto Samson, ethnographer, collector and museum director *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

D. A. Swallow
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Extract

I would like to thank the Royal Asiatic Society warmly for allowing me the privilege of giving today's lecture on Dr Otto Samson. It is both an honour and a responsibility to speak of a person whom one has never known and whom others knew so much better, and I should perhaps explain why I of all people should be standing here today.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 121 , Issue 1 , January 1989 , pp. 5 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1989

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References

1 I am most grateful to Dr Gernot Prunner for his generous assistance with information on the Museum. See Thilenius, G.Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg: Festschrift zum Funfzigjahrigen, Bestehn des Hamburgisches Museums für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, 1928Google Scholar.

2 Zwernemann, J.Hundert Jahre Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, Im Selbstverlag Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, 1980Google Scholar.

3 See Volkerkunde, Hamburgisches Museum für, Führer durch die Sonderaustellung Chinesische volkskunde, Hamburg, 1933Google Scholar and Zwernemann, op. cit., p. 76.

4 Zwernemann, op. cit., p. 65. Danzel was “retired” two months later, because his grandmother was Jewish, but was reinstated the following month.

5 Haddon, A.C. (ed.) Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological expedition to the Torres Straits (6 vols), University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, 1901–35Google Scholar.

6 Fortes, M. “Charles Gabriel Seligman, 1873–1940”, Man, XLI, no 1, 1941, pp. 1–6Google Scholar.

7 For a general account of the excavations see Addison, Moya, F. Jebel: The Wellcome Excavations in the Sudan, (2 vols), London etc, 1949Google Scholar.

8 Mukherjee, R., Radhakrishna Rao, C. and Trevor, J. C.The Ancient Inhabitants of Jebel Moya (Sudan), Cambridge, 1955Google Scholar.

9 See Thilenius, op. cit.

10 Mukherjee et al., op. cit., pp. 2–4.

11 I am indebted to Miss P. A. Rodgers of the Faculty of Arts, Edinburgh University and C. J. Burnett Esq., Dingwall Pursuivant, of the Scottish United Services Museum for their help in providing information about Samson's application and the fund. The endowment, made in 1913 is thought to be from Major General William Tweedie, CSI, Indian Army, born 31.10.1836; commissioned 20.1.1857, and retired with honorary rank of Major General 19.6.1893. Tweedie saw action during the Indian Mutiny, took part in the 1868 Abyssinian expedition, and in 1879 was the Senior Political Officer with the force that advanced from Peshawar through the Khyber Pass during the 2nd Afghan War. He was awarded the Indian Mutiny Medal (2 clasps), the Abyssinian War Medal and was made a Companion of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India in 1881.

12 From the paper of directions by General Tweedie with reference to his trust disposition and supplement, dated 28.2.1913.

13 Assistant Keeper in the Department of Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography, Keeper from 1939–1946.

14 The Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, housed during this period in buildings in Imperial Institute Road.

15 By a committee consisting of Professors Childe, Calder, Kennedy and Brash, from a field of thirteen candidates. The fellowships were worth approximately £200 per annum for each of the two years.

16 See Leach, E. R. “Notes on the mythology of Cambridge anthropology”, Cambridge Anthropology, IX, 1, 1985Google Scholar, and Morrison, C. “Three styles of imperial ethography: British officials as anthropologists in India”, Knowledge and Society, Studies in the Sociology of Culture, Past and Present, Vol. 5, 1984Google Scholar.

17 Ebin, V. & Swallow, D. A. “The proper study of mankind.…” – great anthropological collections in Cambridge, University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, 1984, pp. 25–8Google Scholar.

18 Or possibly Chota Udaipur.

19 Beames, J.Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian, London, 1961, p. 214Google Scholar.

20 Senapati, N. and Sahu, N. K.Mayurbhanj District Gazetteer, Cuttack, 1967Google Scholar.

21 By comparison Santals represented 20%, Kohlas (including Hos) 12%, and Bhumij 8.8%.

22 Senapati, op. cit.

23 Letter from Otto Samson to Louis Clarke, 28.10.1936. Archives of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (CMAA).

24 Ibid.

25 Letter from Clarke to Samson, 14.11.1936. Archives of the CMAA.

26 Parlakhemundi in Ganjam District, South Orissa.

27 The letter contains a line drawing.

28 The Savara, Sawara or Saora, a tribal community found mainly in Ganjam and Koraput districts, South Orissa.

29 Letter from Clarke to Samson, 14.11.1936.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid.

32 Letter from Samson to Clarke 15.2.1937, Archives of the CMAA.

33 See Kulke, H. “Kings without a kingdom: The Rajas of Khurda and the Jagannatha cult”, in South- Asia, IV, 1974, pp. 60–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Archer, M.Indian Popular Painting in the India Office Library, New Delhi, 1977, pp. 1–6Google Scholar, and Archer, W. G.Kalighat Paintings, London, 1971Google Scholar.

35 It is possible that Samson met G. H. Luce, then based at the University of Rangoon.

36 Leach, E. R.Political Systems of Highland Burma, London, 1954Google Scholar.

37 Letter from Samson to Clarke, 1.5.1937, Archives of the CMAA.

38 See particularly Metford, B.Where China meets Burma, London and Glasgow, 1935Google Scholar; Milne, L.Shans at Home, London, 1910Google Scholar; Milne, L.The Home of an Eastern Clan: a Study of the Palaungs of the Shan States, Oxford, 1924Google Scholar.

39 Leach, op. cit, pp. 20–21.

40 Letter from Samson to Clarke, 1.5.1937. Archives of the CMAA.

41 Leach, op. cit.

42 Scott, J. G. & Hardiman, J. P., Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, Rangoon, 1901, Part II, Vol II, pp. 602–3Google Scholar.

43 See Collis, M.Lords of the Sunset: a Tour in the Shan States, London, 1938, pp. 238–47, which gives some description of the townGoogle Scholar.

44 Milne, op. cit.

45 Leach, op. cit, p. 20.

46 Samson's work with Morant must have been directly affected by the intellectual and political dispute about the validity of existing methods of analysis of skeletal remains. In 1933, on the retirement of Professor Karl Pearson, an additional chair was created in University College. R. A. Fisher became the Galton Professor of Eugenics; Pearson's son took the chair in statistics. Morant, who specialized in craniology and craniometry and followed the elder Pearson's approach represented a major financial commitment for the department. The dispute culminated in Fisher's publication of a critical article “Coefficient of racial likeness and the future of craniometry” in JRAI, Vol. 66, pp. 57–63Google Scholar. In 1937 Morant transferred to the Anthropology Department carrying his salary with him. See Fisher-Box, J.R.A. Fisher: The Life of a Scientist, London, 1978Google Scholar.

47 I am indebted to David Boston, Director of the Horniman Museum, and his colleagues for all their assistance.

48 See Duncan, M. G. A Historical Study of the Ethnographical Collections in the Horniman Museum, London, Museums Association Diploma Thesis, 11, 1972Google Scholar

49 From the quarterly report to the Museum's Trustees, 1st quarter, 1958.

50 Ibid.

51 Museum, Horniman, Exhibition of Rumanian Folk Art, London County Council, London, 1957Google Scholar.

52 The regions from which the collection is drawn, once part of the Hungarian empire, are of great historical, cultural and political interest because of their mixed population of Rumanians, Saxons, Magyars and Szeklers. See for example, Schöpflin, G.The Hungarians of Rumania, Minority Rights Group Report No.37, London, 1978Google Scholar.

53 Attendances in the Museum were running at 7 to 10,000 a month, the library had 400 to 450 readers a month and educational activities, a growing part of the Museum's activities, were flourishing. Some 1,566 schoolchildren attended lectures and demonstrations in the period and 1,866 the children's room, and Saturday afternoon lectures, still a flourishing institution, were drawing on average 175 people.

54 Archer, W. G. ‘Obituary of Dr William Otto Samson”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1976, Part 1, pp. 93–4Google Scholar.

55 Museum, Horniman (in association with the Village and Folk Art Museum, Bucharest) Folk Art of Romania, Greater London Council Public Relations Branch, London 1984Google Scholar.