M0012663: Memorial carvings and a carved wooden ancestral figure, New Ireland

Previous title, replaced August 2022: Memorial carvings, New Ireland

Photograph of a composite carving in soft wood of a fish, human and bird interwoven with emblematic designs and an ancestral figure holding a bird the right hand. Both items are from New Ireland (Latangai), Papua New Guinea. The composite carving was acquired by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum at an unknown point and accessioned in 1952 (accession number R31/1952). The figure was purchased at auction by the Museum in 1930 and accessioned in 1936 (accession number R3216/1936). The memorial carving featured in the "Medicine of the Aboriginal Peoples in the British Commonwealth" exhibition which opened at the Museum in July 1952.

August 1952

1 photograph glass plate negative; 12 x 16.5 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession registers which provide entries for the items: R31/1952 and R3216/1936. It also holds the exhibition catalogue.

Copyright is held by Wellcome Collection

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2022.

This item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.