Museum Collection History, Ethics and Policy

Museum Collection History, Ethics and Policy

1. Introduction:-

A collection may be defined as a set of material or intangible objects, such as artefacts,

specimens, works of art, archival documents, etc., which an individual or an establishment

has assembled, classified, selected and preserved in a museum to a small or large

audience .A museum should acquire and manage its collection considering some ethical

issues. A museum generally develop and manage its in conjunction with the museums

stated mission and following institutional rules and regulations along with some ethical

issues. Every museum has its own policy of collection of objects.

2. Major Sources for the Collection History, ethics and policy of a museum:

History is mainly written on the basis of records, such as acquisition documents,research

papers, etc., created by the holding institution and sometimes by independent researchers.

Museum Ethics are drafted by International Council of Museums (ICOM)and policies are

chalked out by the governing body or Board of Trustees or Central or State Government or

municipality authority or other governing authorities of the particular museum.

2.1. Literary Sources:-

 The Indian Museum 1814- 1914, (1917), published by Indian Museum Trustees, Calcutta,

India. In this book the collection history of Indian Museum described elaborately.

 Markham, S.F. and Hargreaves, H. (1936), The Museums of India, , London, The Museums

Associations.

 Tony Bennett, (1995) The Birth of the Museum, Routledge, London, critically examined the

origin of museum.

 N.R.Banerjee (1990) in the book ‘Museum and Cultural Heritage of India, described the

museum movement in India&history of the collections of different museums in Indian

Context.

 ICOM Code of Ethics for museums, (2006), ICOM, Paris. France the ICOM code of ethics

for museums was adopted in 1986 and revised in 2004.

 Wittlin, Alma. S. Museums in Search of a Usable Future, MIT

3. Museum Collection History:

The concept of public museum collection has its history in the remote classical time. The private

collections were a familiar idea in Ancient Greece and Rome. The powerful and wealthy persons

collected objects of craftsmanship and costly materials along with strange and wonderful things.

Aristotle no doubt received natural history specimens of Asian origin from the scientific

observers who was accompanied his people Alexander in Asia.

In the middleAges, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the wealth in Western Europe at least

was more often counted in the form of precious objects, than of money. Kings,Feudallords, and

high ranking churchmen had collections of gold and silver vessels,jewelry,ornament, curved

ivory,weapons,etc. It also includes costly garments of oriental fabrics. During Renaissance, the

owner of the private collections cherished objects less as wealth to be guarded, and more as

sources of enlightment and treasure. Among these collections notable is that of Medici of

Florence, Italy which was begun by Cosimo. De. Elda.

In 1656, John Tradescant, published a description of his private collection under the title

‘Museum Tradescantianum‘. He had inherited his collection from his father and added many

specimens of his own travels. The collection was primarily concerned with natural history, but it

contained each section of curiosities and some scientific instruments. Tradescantwilled it to a

Kindredspirit, Elias Ashmole, who added it to his own collection and gave them both to the

Oxford University,London, United Kingdom. In 1683, the Ashmolean Museum was opened. It

was the first museum which had an experimental laboratory attached to it. It would be pertinent

to mention Sir Asutosh Mukherjee was so impressed that he recorded his appreciation in his

address during the Centenary of Indian Museum and directed the educational trust of the Indian

Museum to be modelled after it.

In the late 18th century, capitalist forces are prevalent in many parts of Europe and North

America, which changed the direction of world history. The American Declaration of

Independence in 1776 and more specially the French Revolution‘s Declaration of Human and

Civil Rights in 1789 are two important events in museum map of the world. The Louvre Museum

in Paris collected large number of art objects previously owned by the king, confiscated by the

church authorities opened to the people in the year 1793.A shift was also seen from royalism to

populism.many of these royal galleries were turned into national property, something that the

great French Museum at Louvre had seen after the French Revolution. During the eighteenth

century the trend had been set by absolutism; the Vienese Royal Collection when it was moved

to the Belvedere Palace in 1776, became more accessible to ordinary people. The Dresden

gallery was another example of how this change was already taking place during the eighteenth

century before the Louvre announced the arrival of the public. In such cases the transition was

manifest in the way the royal galleries with limited access became national gallery with an open

access for the public.

Sir Hans Sloane – an active naturalist as well as a Royal Physician proposed in his will that the

parliament might acquire his great personal collection and he offered it to a fraction of itscost.

The British parliament voted money to buy the collection and established the British Museum on

the site it still occupies in London,Bloomsbury. This museum was opened to the Public in 1759.

During the French Revolution, Louis the VIth, French colonies is dominant in The Louvre

Collection in Paris. The influence of international exposition on museum was started with the

foundation of the field museum. This was begun with the great exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal

Palace Exhibition at London. Mostly Indian artefacts carried to this exhibition by T.N. Mukherjee,

the then Deputy Curator of the Indian Museum, Kolkata. He had also taken with him a band of

master craftsman, perhaps this is the first major organized effort to showcase the intangible

heritage too in the form of putting equal emphasis on the production of crafts as well. All these

objects are the major collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum,London. Many critics felt that

the products of the factories on display showed an awful decline in design and craftsmanship.

The British Government promptly established a museum to collect and exhibit decorative arts,

particularly for the benefit of designers and craftsmen. It became the Victoria & Albert Museum

in London,UK. Museums with a similar purpose were followed in the different parts of Europe,

such as, in Vienna (1863), Hamburg (1874), Oslo (1876), Paris (1880), Copenhagen (1890) and

New York (1895). Often a fair left collections that found entrance into existing museums or new

museums. Many of the great public art museums are products of the 19th century following the

early example of Louvre in Paris which reflected the cultural interest of the rising middle class.

The National Gallery,London, The Prado in Madrid; The Berlin Museum, all were established by

1896. Artefacts of Victoria & Albert Museum related to science, especially the instruments later

transferred to develop the Science Museum at South Kensington.

4. Indian Perspectives:

a)The Indian Museum, Kolkata, West Bengal is the earliest and most renowned institution of

its kind in India. It owes its origin to the Asiatic Society, which was established in 1784. In 1796,

the idea was born to convert the ‘curiosities’collected by the society into a museum. According

to Dr. Nathaniel Wallich,“an institution meant for the reception of all articles that might be sent to

illustrate oriental manners and history, or to elucidate the peculiarities of Art or Nature in the

East“. At first, the museum was divided into two sections – first one dealing with archaeology,

ethnology and technology and the second one with geology and zoology.

In 1840, a museum of Economic Geology was established in Calcutta and the collection was left

with the Society. In 1856, the Geological Survey of India was established and all the materials

were transferred at No 7 Hastings Street. In that year, the Society senta memorandum to the

Government of India for the establishment of an Imperial Museum. That proposal was accepted

and in 1866, the Indian Museum Act was passed. The Board of Trustees was formed and the

entire collection was transferred to the Board of Trustees. The present building which houses

the entire collection was constructed in the year 1875 and was opened to the public in 1878.

The collection was again enriched in 1887 when the economic and art objects accumulated by

the Government of Bengal were handed over to the museum.The first curator of the museum,

when it was located in the Asiatic Society, was Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish national, he was a

medical practitioner. He came to India to serve as a surgeon in the Danish settlement of

Serampore in 1807, where Wallich developed an intimacy with William Carey and Colonel

Roxburgh, who at that time was developing the Botanical Gardens at Sibpur in Howrah. By

then Wallich was fairly well-known for his knowledge of natural science among members of the

Asiatic Society. His connections with the Society gave him the opportunity to become the main

functionary, although honorary, of the Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society. Simultaneously

after the famous Francis Buchanan left his job in the Botanical Gardens, Wallich began to look

after it. It was through his involvement in the affairs of the Botanical Gardens that he succeeded

in creating an important collection of botanical species for the museum. Wallich remained the

main spirit of this museum throughout the period when he was in Calcutta.

He was succeeded by John Mclelland, whowas well-known for his researches in Botany,

Geology and Zoology. He was the Curator between 1839 and 1841. He was succeeded by

Edward Blyth, another scientist, in the office of the Curator. He was brought to Calcutta as the

Curator of the Society’s museum by H.H. Wilson and under his care the zoological collection of

the Society kept on growing. The specimens were transferred to the newly established Indian

Museum in 1866. It was largely through his perseverance that Blyth managed to accumulate a

large number of zoological specimens in the museum to create along with the botanical

collection of his predecessors, which ultimately formedthe nucleus of the elaborate natural

history section. At the intervention of H. H. Wilson, the great Sanskrit scholar, a number of

archaeological artefacts including inscriptions and coins were acquired in the museum. Of great

importance were the inscriptions that the Society’s museum received from Captain Edward Fell

in 1819.

The archaeological collection continued to expand during the 1830s when James Prinsep was

the Secretary of the Asiatic Society. The huge numismatic collection that the Asiatic Society

acquired was almost entirely the result of James Prinsep’s efforts to collect coins. He added the

Society’s small collection of Roman coins with a fairly large acquisition of such coins in July

1833. Apart from the Roman coins, the Society’s numismatic collection had a few Greek and

Persian coins as well, although not very large in number. In the subsequent years the Society’s

numismatic collections continued to grow with private contributions, mainly from the Company’s

officials. For example, in early 1834, Arthur Conolly offered to the Society a consignment of

Gupta coins. Another important archaeological acquisition during Prinsep’s tenure as the

Secretary was a portion of the Buddhist stupa at Manikyala, a village near Kabul in Afghanistan.

A couple of years later Alexander Cunningham, who was to emerge subsequently as the maker

of Indian archaeology, undertook his early excavations at Sarnath and the stone-figures and

bas-reliefs with inscriptions that Cunningham collected from Sarnath during the excavation,

were sent to the Asiatic Society for scholars to work on them. The involvement of Rajendra Lal

Mitra, the great Indian art-historian with the Society from the middle of the century further

enriched the Society’s collection with specimens from Bihar and Orissa.Apart from

archaeological collection, in 1925, the museum received manuscripts, pictures, utensils and

zoological specimens from Nepal. The famous Bharhut railing is housed in this museum.

b) The collection of the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, Calcutta University: It started with

only five objects. Before the establishment of the museum, the excavation in Paharpur in

Rajsahi in Bangladesh was going on in full swing. The University also participated in that

exhibition. This excavation was started with the initiatives of Varendra Research Society in

which Akshay Kumar Maitreya was present. This museum also participated in the excavations

in Bangarh in Dinajpur and Chandraketugarh, North 24 Parganas in West Bengal. Lots of

collection of this museum was excavated from these areas. Dr Paresh Dasgupta, The Director,

Department of Archaeology, government of West Bengal was the pioneering figure in these

works. Local enthusiasts donated many objects to this museum. At first the name of this

museum was the Asutosh Museum of Fine Art. Young museology students and research

scholars also collected artefacts from different places. Many projects were also organized by the

Crafts Council, W. B. in the sixties.

Sir John Marshall, who served the Archaeological Survey of India from 1902-1928 as the

Director General and Lord Curzon, the then Governor General of India were instrumental for the

establishment of the site museums in India. Some of them are Sanchi, Sarnath,

Harappa,Mohenjodaro, (now in Pakistan). The number of Site Museum in 1946 was only 9.

Then on the advice of Sir Mortimer Wheeler the museum Branch of ASI was establishedin 1947.

The entire archaeological wealth, structural units, sculptures, antiquities, etc are housed in

these site museums. The growth of site museums is slow but steady for the last 100

years.Chandraketugarh& its nearby areas, known as Berachampa produced plentiful of objects,

excavations by the Calcutta university in ten successive seasons since 1956-57, all the objects

divisible in six periods, ranging from the pre-Mauryan to the early Gupta period. All are kept in

the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art, Calcutta University.

c) Nagpur Central Museum –It has collections of coins, inscriptions, sculptures, etc., by gift or

purchase or excavations. It also houses stuffed birds, reptiles, & mammals. It has a good

collection of paintings of Bombay school of paintings, articles of day to day use, handicraft

items. This museum is also known as ‘Ajab Bangla’ established in 1863.

d) The Victoria Memorial Hall, kolkata–It is established in the year 1921, in the memory of

Queen Victoria (Died on 1901), this museum has collection of oilpaintings, watercolour

paintings, lithographs, stamps, coins, books & manuscripts, etc.

e) TheChhatrapatiShivajiVastuSangrahalaya (formerly known as The Prince of Wales

Museum of Western Museum, Mumbai): The primary collections were acquired by the trustees

and the Sir Ratan Tata bequest. The archaeological collections are started by pioneering

archaeologists Sir John Marshall and Sir Henry Cousens. It was opened to the public in 1923.

f) The Collection ofthe Allahabad Museum, Uttar Pradesh – Thepriceless collection of

Bharhut sculptures,terracottas of Kausambi,Rajasthaniminiature, paintings of Nicholas Roerich,

& those of Bengal School of Art, Autobiography of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, etc. Some of

theseare donated to the museum, some acquired through purchase or loan.

g) The Collection History of the Orissa State Museum, Bhubaneswar –Archaeological

sculptures are mainly collected through excavations. Coins, medals, arms, weapons, etc., are

purchased or donated to the museum. Wide varieties of manuscripts are also a rich treasure of

the museum. Rocks and minerals are collected from different sites of Orissa. Broken pieces of

Asokan lion, carved ivory objects are the major attraction.

h) The National Museum – Theblue print for the establishment of the National Museum in Delhi

had been prepared by the Gwyer Committee set up by the Government of India in 1946. An

exhibition of Indian Art consisting of selected artefacts from various museums of India,

sponsored by the Royal Academy of London with the cooperation of the Government of India

and Britain, was on display in the winter months of 1947-48 in the galleries of .Burlington House,

London, was organized. These objects after returning from London were exhibited in the State

Rooms of the RasthrapatiBhavan, New Delhi, in 1949 and it was the basis for the creation of

National Museum. The museum continued to grow in its collections that were sought

painstakingly. It received several gifts but the artifacts were mainly collected through its Art

Purchase Committee.The Central Asian Antiquities Gallery has got the famous Aurelstein

collection. The Harappan Gallery in the ground floor displays original Harappan artefacts.

i) Patna State Museum – Thefamous ‘DidargangYakshi’ is in the collection of the Patna

museum, Bihar.The sculpture was discovered on a Ganges river bank in1917.The museum

started on 3rd April, 1917. The museum has a fine collection related to the first President of

India. It has collection of archaeological objects, coins. thankas, paintings, textiles mainly found

in Patna and its nearby areas. The new Bihar Museum Project has started in 2009.

j) Birla Industrial & Technological Museum – Thepioneering science museum in India is not

very old and was planned and set up by the first generation museologists in science, technology

& industry. G.D. Birla donated a building in 1955 for the establishment of an Industrial Museum

in Calcutta. The Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Calcutta, was established in 1959.

Initially the first few galleries were devoted only for explaining the fundamental of science

through laboratory type demonstration exhibits. Most of the exhibits of the science museums are

fabricated in their own workshop. 1978 onwards, National Council of Science Museums (NCSM)

administrates science museums, science centres& science parks on national, sub regional,

regional and district level.Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Kolkata, has some rare

objects in their custody. Some representative samples of telephone and cables, wall-clock, are

in the collection of the museum. Mostly these are gifted to the museum.

k) Shankar’s International Dolls Museum – Thefamous cartoonist Shankar received a special

gift from the Hungarian ambassador,thefirst doll of Shankar’s International Dolls Museum, New

Delhi. After that the cartoonist eagerly started to collect costume dolls from every country he

visited as part of the prime ministers entourage. Thus the collection of the museum has been

increased & then ultimately in 1965 it was opened.

l) The collection of The Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad, was mainly acquired by Nawab Mir

Yusuf Ali Khan, popularly known as SalarJung iiithis zeal of collecting art objects continued for

three generations as a family tradition. In 1914, Salarjung iii, after having the post of the Prime

Minister to HEH, the Nizam VII,Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, devoted his entire life in collecting.

The famous Veiled Rebecca, beautiful collection of gems and jewellery, European painting

collections of world famous artists, are the rich treasures of the museum.

m) The RabindraBharati Museum at the ancestral house of the Tagore family of Jorasanko is

a rich repository of paintings of Rabindranath, Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Sunayani Devi,

and other painters of the Bengal School of Paintings.The period furniture, personal effects,

letters disc records etc are in the collection of the museum.

n) TheSrimantaSankaradevaKalakshetra, Guwahati is a cultural organization which presents

the life and culture of North-east India. It showcases the tangible heritages of the region the

collection grew out of the efforts, attitude & creative mind of many people.

o) Museums of Natural History - It should be relevant to mention the collection history of the

natural history museums in India.On 5th June 1978, the National Museum of Natural History was

established in New Delhi. It displays rare and endangered stuffed animals, eggs, original

nests,etc., besides models and dioramas. The Natural History Museum, Darjeeling, Forest

Museum, Dehradun, the Napier Museum of Natural History, different regional museums in

Mysore, Bhubaneswar, etc., all have original specimens or objects mainly collected by field

surveys or gifts or seized by the Custom.

p) Ethnographic collection started in the same manner in India, as personal collection, royal

collection, temple collection, etc. In1945, separate Anthropology Section was established in The

Indian Museum. Madras Central Museum started ethnographic collection with the acquisition of

Breek’s collection in 1878. Indira Gandhi RashtriyaManavSangrahalaya (IGRMS), Bhopal, is the

biggest Anthropological museum in India. It was established in 1977.The museum possesses a

huge collections of different communities from all over India.Many museums portray the life &

culture of tribes in India. Some of them are The Zonal Anthropological Museum in Port Blair,

Jharkhand Tribal Welfare Research Institute Museum, Ranchi, RagailongMuseum,Imphal

houses objects related to local tribes.

In different times different rulers created their capitals in different places. Museums have been

built up in their residential palaces, courts, forts, etc. The Meherangarh Fort Museum,

Mattancherry Palace Museum, Cochin, the Fort Museum, Bikaner, etc., houses the attractive

textile, artefacts, transport items, paintings of thoseperiods.The Fort St. George Museum,

Chennai is the narrator of the history of East India Company.

Nowadays, India has got different types of museums on various subjects like, The Sulabh

International Toilet Museum, New Delhi, The National Rail Museum,New Delhi, The Air Force

Museum,New Delhi, Museums of the medical colleges. The Swaminarayan Temple Museum in

Ahmedabad, The Calico Textile museum, Ahmedabad, The Museum of Man& Environment,

NarendrapurRamakrishna Mission, West Bengal, The National police Museum, New Delhi, The

National Postal Museum, New Delhi, etc. Each and every museum has its own interesting

collection history.

5.Ethics of Collection:

During collection of an object ownership of the object and the implication of accepting the item

should be examined thoroughly.The museum should examine the reasons for accepting an item

into its collection, such as for loan, handling, demonstrationpurposes, without compromising the

standard of care and access relating to the existing collections. A museum should co-operate

with other museums and alike institutions as well as communities and groups when collecting,

recognising that the others involved in the same may have a stronger claim to acquisition of that

particular item. During gift or bequest the museum’s intention regarding the object’s value and

use should be specified unambiguously to the donors, such as the long term retention of the

item, storage or display and public acknowledgement. Ethics of collection are based upon the

underlying values of honesty, fairness and accountability to the society at large. The ICOM

Code of Professional Ethics was adopted unanimously by the 15th General Assembly of ICOM

in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 4th November, 1986 and amended by the 20th General Assembly

in Barcelona, Spain on 6th July, 2001, and renamed as ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums, and

revised by the 21st General Assembly in Seoul, Republic of Korea. It mainly reflects ethics of

acquiring, removing, and care of collection

 Ethical Consideration related to museum acquisition policy:

Amuseum should collect objects in accordance to the published policy that is formulated to

its mission statement. After investigation of the long term value of an item and its use

museum should collect object. The acquisition policy should specify the criteria for future

acquisitions that include topic, time frame and geographical areas. A museum should

accept an object if it can provide proper care and public access to it without compromising

standard of care to the exiting collection and public access to it.

 Ethical Consideration related to mode of acquisition, type of acquisition etc.:

During collection careful consideration should be made on Objects and specimens from

unauthorised or unscientific fieldwork, culturally sensitive material, protected biological or

geological specimens, working collections etc. Museum should not collect objects, where

there is reason to believe that the recovery involved unauthorised or unscientific fieldwork.

A museum should not collect objects that have been collected, sold or transferred in

contravention of local, national, regional, or international law or treaty relating to wildlife

protection or natural habitat conservation. The acquisition of objects outside the museum

stated policy should only be made in some exceptional cases.

 Ethical Considerations related to Legislations:

For collecting objects or specimens a museum must conform fully to international, national,

regional, or local legislation and treaty in force in the country. Some important International

conventions are very essential in this regard –

a) Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict(the

Hague Convention) , 1954, First Protocol, 1954, Second Protocol, 1999

b) UNESCO Convention on the means of Prohibiting and Preventing the illicit Import,

Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970);

c) Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

(1973)

d) UN Convention on Biological Diversity (1992)

e) Unidroit Convention on Stolen and Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (1995)

f) UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage(2001)

g) UNESCO Convention for safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003)

Therefore, any museum can reject any item if there is any doubt of its source, as it may have

been stolen, illegally excavated or removed from a monument etc. In India, a series of laws

were also enacted to preserve and protect the natural and cultural heritage of the country. Some

of these are-

 The Indian Treasure-Trove Act (1978)

 Ancient Monuments Preservation Act (1904)

 The Antiquities (Export Control) Act (1947)

 Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972

 Wildlife Protection Act, (1972)

6. Collection Policy:

Museums should have active and systematic collecting policies. Each and every museum

should draw up an active collection programme in accordance with its collection policies. The

governing body should adopt and publish a written collection policy that addresses the

acquisition, care, use of collections. The policy should clarify the position, of any material that

will not be catalogued, conserved or exhibited.

7. Summary:

This module gives an outline idea about the history of the collections of different museums in

India. The fundamental points of Ethical issues related to the collection of objects are described

in a nutshell. The collection policy varies from museum to museum depending on the types of its

collection, human resources and financial resources.