Hand-colouring Northcote Thomas's photographs

Featured Blog

Although there were many early experiments with colour photography from the 1850s, it was not until the mid-1930s, with the introduction of Kodachrome film, that it became widely used. All of Northcote Thomas’s photographs made during his anthropological surveys of…

Featured Video

Visit the [Re:]Entanglements: Colonial Collections in Decolonial Times exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, UK, 22 June 2021 to 17 April 2022.

Itineraries

Between 1909 and 1915, Northcote Thomas led four extensive anthropological surveys in Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Explore the journeys on Google Maps.

Collections

The [Re:]Entanglements project has been researching and rearticulating the collections originally assembled by the anthropologist N. W. Thomas in the early years of the twentieth century in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. What does this remarkable ethnographic archive mean for different

Itineraries

Between 1909 and 1915, Northcote Thomas led four extensive anthropological surveys in Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone, West Africa. We have reconstructed Thomas’s travels from fieldnotes, letters and information associated with his photographs, sound recordings and collections. Explore the itineraries

Fieldwork

One of the main objectives of the [Re:]Entanglements project has been to bring copies of the photographs and sound recordings made by Northcote Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915 back to the communities whose heritage they

[Re:]Entanglements: Colonial Collections in Decolonial Times

Over the last few years, the [Re:]Entanglements project has been re-engaging with a remarkable ethnographic archive – including objects, photographs, sound recordings, botanical specimens, published work and fieldnotes – assembled by the colonial anthropologist, Northcote W. Thomas, in Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915. As well as better understanding the historical context in which these materials were gathered, the project seeks to examine their significance in the present. What do these archives and collections mean for different communities today? What actions do they make possible? How might we creatively explore their latent possibilities?

The project is being led by Paul Basu, Professor in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, and involves many partnerships in the UK, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and beyond. These include the many institutions across which this ethnographic archive has been dispersed, including the Nigerian National Museum, Lagos, the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the British Library Sound Archive, the Pitt Rivers Museum, the Royal Anthropological Institute, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the UK National Archives.

New articles and resources are constantly being added to the website. If you are interested in finding out more or would like to get involved please contact us! Join the project Facebook Group and contribute to the debates about colonial collections in decolonial times.

 

Project Partners

Project Partners

University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
British Library
Royal Anthropological Institute
Pitt Rivers Museum
The National Archives
Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage
Research Centre for Material Culture