NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Gottingen collection
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jul 2, 18:06 -0500
Its difficult for us to imagine these days the sense of wonderment the
European world had in the past for the largely unknown Pacific Oceans
based on ancient legends, speculation and quite intense curiosity; from
antiquity until well into the nineteenth century.
The Pacific was still little enough known at the beginning of the
eighteenth century - although various European vessels had blundered
their way miserably across it (painfully if not mortally afflicted with
scurvy and other diseases, often enough) - but that century saw much
greater knowledge of these oceans brought back to Europe and North
America.
By the end of that century, although much detail remained to be filled
in, it was known that these oceans stretched from the Arctic ice to
Antarctica and extended to the west from a point itself to the east of
New York at W 070d to meet Asia 160d further to the west at E 120d.
They also met the great southern continent, where the English had
recently established a colony, although the oceans were mostly just
that, vast expanses of water with mostly only small islands loosely
scattered about, that fully justified the interest that was shown in
them even before they were revealed.
Perhaps the greatest European explorer of the eighteenth century was
the Yorkshire man James Cook with his three voyages into the Pacific
between 1768 and 1780. The story of his explorations is also an
important part of the story of developing techniques of navigation.
Although he carried an early chronometer on one trip, Cook himself
thought that the longitude problem had been solved by lunars. On each
of these expeditions he carried with him leading scientists of that
time who were only too eager to, among their other activities, collect
artefacts from the lands they visited. These included:
"clothing of barkcloth, wooden weapons, ceremonial dress and
headgear, carvings, ornaments, totems, mats, baskets, fans, fishing and
hunting equipment and musical instruments collected from Tahiti, Tonga,
Hawaii, the Marquesas, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and from the
North and South American Pacific coasts."
What happened to it all? Strangely enough, one of the most significant
collections is held at the University of Gottingen, Lower Saxony
(Niedersachsen), Germany. A country that was not involved with the
Pacific in the eighteenth century.
"Two German scholars, Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg, were
on board Cook's second voyage as natural historians. They were scholars
of the Enlightenment, a philosophy that believed European society was
degenerate, but life in the Pacific was a harmonious paradise that
could be compared to ancient Greece.
The Forsters collected a large number of artefacts but sold many
because of economic necessity. The bulk of those ended up in the Pitt
Rivers Museum in Oxford. But 160 objects from Johann Reinhold Forster's
estate were acquired by Gottingen University in 1799.
Earlier the university had acquired other treasures from Cook's voyages
through a connection with the British Crown and collecting by a
Gottingen scholar, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.
The University of Gottingen was founded in 1734. It was committed to
the ideas of the Enlightenment - the search for knowledge through
collection and observation of facts. The scholars, particularly
Blumenbach, were interested in learning about the world beyond Europe.
They sought material from the newly discovered islands of the Pacific -
artefacts or curiosities, objects of rare interest - because they
wanted to learn about the world and the people in it.
Blumenbach set up an academic museum at the university in 1773 and set
about assembling what is now known as the Cook-Forster collection. He
had good connections with Joseph Banks, the botanist on Cook's first
voyage who was an early donor.
Then came a stroke of fortune.
Gottingen was in the Electorate of Hanover. After the death of
Britain's Queen Anne in 1714, the Hanoverians acceded to the British
throne. The second Hanoverian king, George II, was the founder of the
University of Gottingen.
In 1781, a year after Cook's third voyage returned, Blumenbach
exploited the Hanoverian connection by asking the university to ask
King George III for a share of "the surplus of foreign curiosities".
The king agreed to a £100 worth - enough to buy 349 lots, totalling
600 items.
Conservator Gerry Barton, who has been working on the Cook-Forster
collection for the past two years, says the items were used for
scholarly work for 225 years. Some were taken out occasionally for
students to examine, but they were not generally on public display. For
years many stayed unexposed to light - hence their excellent state of
preservation. "
Now, for the first time in 225 years, some of this collection has
returned to the Pacific, on display. In Hawaii earlier this year,
presently at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The quoted
material comes from my local paper: The Sydney Morning Herald. Here is
a link to that article, although unfortunately you will be charged a
few dollars to access it.
http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/browseArchive.ac?sy=nstore&cls=17778
(that page also offers information about how: "Marine archaeologists
are discovering the hidden story of how Captain Cook's ship came to be
at the bottom of an American harbour")
back to the Gottingen collection:
"early scholars of the Enlightenment, the Cook artefacts
were evidence that Pacific islanders were creators of art, science
and industry.
They were part of what they called the brotherhood of humankind - the
same as Europeans but different. It was before the ideas of Charles
Darwin were misapplied to justify conquest, colonisation and
exploitation of "less-evolved", "inferior" people.
Blumenbach said "Europeans, Negroes and others" were all "true humans
and mere varieties of one and the same species". These artefacts helped
him to that conclusion.
The pieces in this collection show remarkable sophistication and
artistry.
A curator at the National Museum of Australia, Mathew Trinca, says they
are also a unique sample of pre-European Pacific culture. Once
Europeans had visited, their materials were subsequently used in
artefacts - changing methods and culture forever.
Another curator at the museum, Michelle Hetherington, says the insight
the collection provides on Pacific culture was evident during its
display in Hawaii. Some Hawaiians left greenery at some ceremonial
exhibits as an act of cleansing in case they were not of high enough
rank to see the items.
In Canberra, the collection will be displayed in a 1000 sq m special
exhibition space. It will include explanations of Cook's voyages and of
Polynesian migration. Extra reading material and access to websites on
Cook and the Pacific will also be available."
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2006 Jul 2, 18:06 -0500
Its difficult for us to imagine these days the sense of wonderment the
European world had in the past for the largely unknown Pacific Oceans
based on ancient legends, speculation and quite intense curiosity; from
antiquity until well into the nineteenth century.
The Pacific was still little enough known at the beginning of the
eighteenth century - although various European vessels had blundered
their way miserably across it (painfully if not mortally afflicted with
scurvy and other diseases, often enough) - but that century saw much
greater knowledge of these oceans brought back to Europe and North
America.
By the end of that century, although much detail remained to be filled
in, it was known that these oceans stretched from the Arctic ice to
Antarctica and extended to the west from a point itself to the east of
New York at W 070d to meet Asia 160d further to the west at E 120d.
They also met the great southern continent, where the English had
recently established a colony, although the oceans were mostly just
that, vast expanses of water with mostly only small islands loosely
scattered about, that fully justified the interest that was shown in
them even before they were revealed.
Perhaps the greatest European explorer of the eighteenth century was
the Yorkshire man James Cook with his three voyages into the Pacific
between 1768 and 1780. The story of his explorations is also an
important part of the story of developing techniques of navigation.
Although he carried an early chronometer on one trip, Cook himself
thought that the longitude problem had been solved by lunars. On each
of these expeditions he carried with him leading scientists of that
time who were only too eager to, among their other activities, collect
artefacts from the lands they visited. These included:
"clothing of barkcloth, wooden weapons, ceremonial dress and
headgear, carvings, ornaments, totems, mats, baskets, fans, fishing and
hunting equipment and musical instruments collected from Tahiti, Tonga,
Hawaii, the Marquesas, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and from the
North and South American Pacific coasts."
What happened to it all? Strangely enough, one of the most significant
collections is held at the University of Gottingen, Lower Saxony
(Niedersachsen), Germany. A country that was not involved with the
Pacific in the eighteenth century.
"Two German scholars, Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg, were
on board Cook's second voyage as natural historians. They were scholars
of the Enlightenment, a philosophy that believed European society was
degenerate, but life in the Pacific was a harmonious paradise that
could be compared to ancient Greece.
The Forsters collected a large number of artefacts but sold many
because of economic necessity. The bulk of those ended up in the Pitt
Rivers Museum in Oxford. But 160 objects from Johann Reinhold Forster's
estate were acquired by Gottingen University in 1799.
Earlier the university had acquired other treasures from Cook's voyages
through a connection with the British Crown and collecting by a
Gottingen scholar, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach.
The University of Gottingen was founded in 1734. It was committed to
the ideas of the Enlightenment - the search for knowledge through
collection and observation of facts. The scholars, particularly
Blumenbach, were interested in learning about the world beyond Europe.
They sought material from the newly discovered islands of the Pacific -
artefacts or curiosities, objects of rare interest - because they
wanted to learn about the world and the people in it.
Blumenbach set up an academic museum at the university in 1773 and set
about assembling what is now known as the Cook-Forster collection. He
had good connections with Joseph Banks, the botanist on Cook's first
voyage who was an early donor.
Then came a stroke of fortune.
Gottingen was in the Electorate of Hanover. After the death of
Britain's Queen Anne in 1714, the Hanoverians acceded to the British
throne. The second Hanoverian king, George II, was the founder of the
University of Gottingen.
In 1781, a year after Cook's third voyage returned, Blumenbach
exploited the Hanoverian connection by asking the university to ask
King George III for a share of "the surplus of foreign curiosities".
The king agreed to a £100 worth - enough to buy 349 lots, totalling
600 items.
Conservator Gerry Barton, who has been working on the Cook-Forster
collection for the past two years, says the items were used for
scholarly work for 225 years. Some were taken out occasionally for
students to examine, but they were not generally on public display. For
years many stayed unexposed to light - hence their excellent state of
preservation. "
Now, for the first time in 225 years, some of this collection has
returned to the Pacific, on display. In Hawaii earlier this year,
presently at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The quoted
material comes from my local paper: The Sydney Morning Herald. Here is
a link to that article, although unfortunately you will be charged a
few dollars to access it.
http://newsstore.fairfax.com.au/apps/browseArchive.ac?sy=nstore&cls=17778
(that page also offers information about how: "Marine archaeologists
are discovering the hidden story of how Captain Cook's ship came to be
at the bottom of an American harbour")
back to the Gottingen collection:
"early scholars of the Enlightenment, the Cook artefacts
were evidence that Pacific islanders were creators of art, science
and industry.
They were part of what they called the brotherhood of humankind - the
same as Europeans but different. It was before the ideas of Charles
Darwin were misapplied to justify conquest, colonisation and
exploitation of "less-evolved", "inferior" people.
Blumenbach said "Europeans, Negroes and others" were all "true humans
and mere varieties of one and the same species". These artefacts helped
him to that conclusion.
The pieces in this collection show remarkable sophistication and
artistry.
A curator at the National Museum of Australia, Mathew Trinca, says they
are also a unique sample of pre-European Pacific culture. Once
Europeans had visited, their materials were subsequently used in
artefacts - changing methods and culture forever.
Another curator at the museum, Michelle Hetherington, says the insight
the collection provides on Pacific culture was evident during its
display in Hawaii. Some Hawaiians left greenery at some ceremonial
exhibits as an act of cleansing in case they were not of high enough
rank to see the items.
In Canberra, the collection will be displayed in a 1000 sq m special
exhibition space. It will include explanations of Cook's voyages and of
Polynesian migration. Extra reading material and access to websites on
Cook and the Pacific will also be available."
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
