Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

collections of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The museum is located to the east of the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It a ...

, and can only be accessed through that building. The museum was founded in 1884 by

Augustus Pitt Rivers Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 18274 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological met ...

, who donated his private collection to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

with the condition that a permanent lecturer in

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

must be appointed.

Edward Burnett Tylor Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 18322 January 1917) was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology. Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century cultural evolutionism. In his works '' Primitive Culture'' (1871) and ''Anthropology'' ...

thereby became the first lecturer in anthropology in the UK following his appointment to the post of Reader in Anthropology in 1885. Museum staff are still involved in teaching

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and anthropology at the university. The first curator of the museum was

Henry Balfour ::''See also Henry Balfour (MP for Fifeshire)'' Henry Balfour FRS FRAI (11 April 1863 – 9 February 1939) was a British archaeologist, and the first curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institu ...

. A second stipulation in the Deed of Gift was that a building should be provided to house the collection and used for no other purpose. The university therefore engaged

Thomas Manly Deane Sir Thomas Manly Deane (8 June 1851 – 3 February 1933) was an Irish architect, the son of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane and grandson of Sir Thomas Deane, who were also architects. Born at Ferney House, Blackrock, Cork, on 8 June 1851, he was edu ...

, son of

Thomas Newenham Deane Sir Thomas Newenham Deane (1828 – 8 November 1899) was an Irish architect, the son of Sir Thomas Deane and Eliza Newenham, and the father of Sir Thomas Manly Deane. His father and son were also architects. Works attributed to Thomas Newen ...

who, together with

Benjamin Woodward Benjamin Woodward (16 November 1816 – 15 May 1861) was an Irish architect who, in partnership with Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, designed a number of buildings in Dublin, Cork and Oxford. Life Woodward was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ire ...

, had designed and built the original Oxford University Museum of Natural History building three decades earlier, to create an adjoining building at the rear of the main building to house the collection. Construction started in 1885 and was completed in 1886. The original donation consisted of approximately 22,000 items; this has now grown to more than 500,000 items, many of which have been donated by travellers, scholars and missionaries. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the museum was shut from 17 March 2020 to 22 September 2020. The decision was made to remove from display the

shrunken head A shrunken head is a severed and specially prepared human head that is used for trophy, ritual, or trade purposes. Headhunting has occurred in many regions of the world, but the practice of headshrinking has only been documented in the northwes ...

s (tsantsa), as well as other human remains during this closure. The heads had been on display since the 1940s.

Organization

The museum's collection is arranged typologically, according to how the objects were used, rather than according to their age or origin. This layout owes a lot to the theories of Pitt-Rivers himself, who intended for his collection to show progression in design and evolution in human culture from the simple to the complex. Whilst this evolutionary approach to material culture is no longer fashionable in archaeology and anthropology, the museum has broadly retained the original typological organisation of the displays, partly due to a stipulation in the Deed of Gift that any changes to the displays 'shall not affect the general principle originated by the said Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers'. The display of many examples of a particular type of tool or artefact, showing historical and regional variations, is an unusual and distinct feature of this museum. The museum has a high density of objects on display, and the displays are changed periodically. At 11.36m high, the Haida house post or

totem pole Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually ...

is the largest object on display in the museum. From a Haida community, it originally stood outside Star House in the village of

Old Massett Old Massett, named G̱aw in X̱aad kíl, is an Indigenous Canadian village on Graham Island in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. It lies on the east side of Masset Sound close to the town of Masset; the area of land it is on is legally designated M ...

(Haida name Uttewas), on

Graham Island Graham Island () is the largest island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago (previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), lying off the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is separated by the narrow Skidegate Channel from the other pr ...

, in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The house was built around 1882 and belonged to chief Anetlas (c.1816–1893). The pole was purchased via Edward Burnett Tylor and transported to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1901. File:Oxford - Pitt Rivers Museum - 0269.jpg, The Pitt Rivers Museum File:Pitt Rivers Museum 15.jpg, Figures from around the world File:Pitt Rivers Museum 21.JPG, Fishing boat models from around the world File:Pitt Rivers Museum 20.JPG, Japanese

Noh is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...

masks

Expansion

In 2004, the museum received £3,700,000 from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to build an annex adjoining the museum. Building work was completed in 2007, bringing the academic staff of the museum back to the site, and providing a

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physic ...

for

conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...

of the specimens. A second phase of development began on 7 July 2008 necessitating the closure of the museum and galleries. The museum reopened on 1 May 2009. In this work, the 1960s exhibition gallery was dismantled, restoring the original view through to the museum's totem pole. Original display cases were returned to their original place at the front of the museum. The space upstairs vacated by these cases provides additional space for a Clore Duffield Education Centre. A new entrance platform was built to allow visitors to enter on the same level as the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and improves access for wheelchair users and parents with pushchairs. The entrance platform provides re-located shop and reception areas. An environmental control system was also installed.

Awards

The Pitt Rivers Museum, along with the

, won ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' newspaper's award for Family Friendly Museum of 2005. In 2019, the Pitt Rivers Museum was finalist of the Art Fund Museum of the Year Award.

Colonial legacy

In recent years, the Pitt Rivers Museum has been called sector-leading in its work on

decoloniality Decoloniality ( es, decolonialidad) is a school of thought used principally by an emerging Latin American movement which focuses on untangling the production of knowledge from a primarily Eurocentric episteme. It critiques the perceived universali ...

. Further details can be found on the website. In September 2020, the museum announced it had made a number of critical changes to its displays, including the removal from display of human remains and the installation of a new Introductory Case as an intervention in its permanent galleries that engages with the colonial legacy of the museum. The museum has also said that it would make changes to the labels to include stories "through the voices of artists and indigenous leaders". As part of this process the Pitt Rivers Museum is meeting with originating communities to address errors and gaps in the information it stores, and to discuss repatriation. One of these is the Living Cultures initiative, a collaboration between the museum, a

Maasai Maasai may refer to: * Maasai people *Maasai language * Maasai mythology * MAASAI (band) See also * Masai (disambiguation) * Massai Massai (also known as: Masai, Massey, Massi, Mah–sii, Massa, Wasse, Wassil or by the nickname "Big Foot" Mas ...

community based campaign group called Oltoilo Le Maa, and community development organisation InsightShare.

Notable people

(curator) *

Beatrice Blackwood Beatrice Mary Blackwood (3 May 1889 – 29 November 1975) was a British anthropologist, who ran the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford from 1938 until her retirement in 1959. Early life and education Beatrice Blackwood was born in London on 3 May ...

(curator, anthropologist) *

Elizabeth Edwards Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards (July 3, 1949 – December 7, 2010) was an American attorney, author, and health care activist. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina who was the 2004 United States Democrati ...

(curator, historian of photography) *

Bernard Fagg Bernard Evelyn Buller Fagg MBE, (8 December 1915 – 14 August 1987) was a British archaeologist and museum curator who undertook extensive work in Nigeria before and after the Second World War. Biography Fagg was born in Upper Norwood to ...

(curator, archaeologist), curator *

Barbara Freire-Marreco Barbara Freire-Marreco (1879–1967) was an English anthropologist and folklorist. She was a member of the first class of anthropology students to graduate from Oxford in 1908. Biography She was born to a family of St Mawes in Cornwall, origi ...

(anthropologist) *

Chris Gosden Christopher Hugh Gosden (born 6 September 1955) is a British and Australian Archaeology, archaeologist specialising in the archaeology of Identity (social science), identity, particularly English national identity, English identity. He is Profes ...

(archaeologist) * Clare Harris (curator for Asian Collections) * Schuyler Jones (American anthropologist) * Margaret Staples-Browne ( Makereti) (Maori anthropologist) * Howard Morphy (anthropologist) *

(anthropologist)

References

External links

* *

{{Authority control Houses completed in 1884 Museums established in 1884 Archaeological museums in England Anthropology museums in England Musical instrument museums in England Grade I listed buildings in Oxford Museums of the University of Oxford Ethnographic museums in England History of the University of Oxford History of museums Grade I listed museum buildings