Oceania at the Tropenmuseum

Oceania at the Tropenmuseum is an exploration of the birth and growth of a well-known Oceanic collection, which started at the beginning of the 20th century with the joining together of the collections of the Koloniaal Museum in the Dutch provincial town of Haarlem and the ethnographical collection of Artis, the Amsterdam Zoo. The objects were, then and later on, brought together by early explorers, travellers, scientific expeditions, missionaries, Dutch government officials, ethnologists and collectors of tribal art, most of them within the context of Dutch colonial presence in New Guinea, from where the majority of objects originate. During the last hundred years the intellectual approach of the collection changed from evidences of primitive cultures in far away places to the cultural heritage of world citizens, whose objects of art and material culture has been amassed during the colonial period of Western history. This richly illustrated book emphasizes this historical context and the way the objects were collected and presented to the public until this day.

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Oceania at the Tropenmuseum

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