The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is holding the first major exhibition of its photographic collections, entitled Collected Sights: Photographic Collections of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1860s - 1930s.

The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is holding the first major exhibition of its photographic collections, entitled Collected Sights: Photographic Collections of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1860s - 1930s.

Since its foundation in 1884 the Museum has been accumulating photographic prints, negatives, albums and lantern slides. This material comes from many sources - travellers, missionaries, colonial officers, professional studios, scholars and scientific expeditions. The earliest photographs were donated by Baron Anatole von Hugel, the first Curator of the Museum, who travelled in the South Seas between 1874 and 1877.

The exhibition spans the globe with regional sections including the Americas, the Arctic, China, India and the Pacific, other sections draw attention to the academic, artistic and political contexts in which photographs were created and used.

The exhibition describes the long-running 19th century debate on whether photography could be considered an art, the inspiration photographers drew from existing aesthetic traditions and how they went on to forge new artistic styles. It also reveals the ways in which colonial powers used photography to survey the lands and peoples they controlled and the importance of photographic images in the development of fieldwork as the essential research methodology of anthropology.

Collected Sights is the result of a major project initiated in 1997, to catalogue and re-house over 100,000 images in the Museum's collection. The work has encouraged more detailed research and will improve access to this rich visual resource. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the exhibtion was made possible by a grant from the Crowther Benyon Fund.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The exhibition runs until November 2002 and is housed on the second floor of the Museum.
The Museum is located on Downing Street (between Pembroke College and Emmanuel College) in the heart of Cambridge.
The Museum is open to the public, free of charge.

Opening hours
Until 7 September 2001
10.30am - 4.30pm, Tuesday - Friday; 2.00 - 4.30pm, Saturday
From 7 September 2001
2.00 - 4.30pm, Tuesday - Saturday.


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