Ethnography at the British Museum

[1] The addition of material gathered by Captain James Cook and his companions between 1767 and 1780, and presented to the British Museum by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Cook himself and Joseph Banks, were a substantial addition to the material previously collected by Sir Hans Sloane.

Some material found its way to Göttingen,[2] where August Ludwig Schlözer was developing his concepts of Völkerkunde and ethnographie.

In 1817 this was supplemented by material from West Africa collected by Thomas Edward Bowdich during his 'Mission to Ashantee', in 1825 by Aztec sculptures collected by William Bullock in Mexico and Captain William Edward Parry's Eskimo material from his second Arctic voyage of 1829.

[5] In 1866, the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities was formed under the superintendence of Augustus Wollaston Franks, as Keeper.

[7] From 1970 to 2004 the Department of Ethnography of the British Museum was housed at 6 Burlington Gardens, displaying collections from the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and Australia, as well as tribal Asia and Europe.