ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

Analysing the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

The Other Within: Analysing the English collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

'The Other Within' project team, support team and project

The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford is one of the foremost ethnographic museums in the world. It is known for having many thousands of objects on display from all corners of the globe, and from all periods of history. However, it does have surprisingly large collections of artefacts, photographs and manuscripts from England. During the Relational Museum project, that team discovered that there were many more English objects in the Pitt Rivers Museum than one might expect given the public perception of the Museum as a place for exotic specimens, specimens brought to England from abroad.

The research project looked at the museum's English collection hoping to discover many new things about it. The three-year project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and will finish in 2009. The project team now consists of Chris Gosden, Professor of European Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford, Alison Petch and Chris Wingfield. Unfortunately, Dr Hélène La Rue, who had been a member of the team, died in July 2007, her contribution to the project was sadly missed. Read more about the progress of the project during its three years at the PRM's 'Other Within' page. The two web designers for the site were David Harris and Dan Burt.

The team analysed the English collections of the museum, together with the history and motives of the people making the collections. This threw new light on what was being collected and on a variety of issues including the concept of 'survivals' within English culture. The overall aim of the project was to use a major museum collection, with its connected documentation, to throw light on the modern construction of Englishness. The changing structure of the English ethnographic and archaeological collections were analysed. One of the foci was on particular counties, especially Oxfordshire and Somerset. Archival resources were used to provide rich contextual information on the artefacts and the people who collected them.

One of the major outcomes of the project is this innovative website. Here you will find the raw data which members of the project team (and associates) have produced and will use to prepare the monograph and papers that will be other outcomes of the project. See here for the personal view of one of the researchers about the website and the use of web resources by the project.

We are especially grateful to our research associates who have contributed so much to the work and thinking of this research project:

Ollie Douglas
Elizabeth Edwards
Mike Heaney
Frances Larson
Nicolette Makovichy
Phil Platt
Peter Rivière
Alison Roberts

See here for a fuller list of people who have helped.

See here for more information about the publications and talks of the Other Within researchers.