Belkov P. Three Combs from the Collection of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay
Pavel Belkov
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
E-mail: Pavel.belkov@kunstkamera.ru
Download | Go to Issue #4. 2022
ABSTRACT. The article examines the issues of identification of ethnographic objects and museum source studies in general on the example of studying the ancient collections of the Kunstkamera. The immediate object of the study are three combs from the collection MAE No. 168 (168-3/3), handed over by Miklouho-Maclay in 1886. The main source is the handwritten card catalog of the Department of Australia and Oceania. The author puts forward a hypothesis according to which the disappeared comb MAE No. 168-3a is currently stored under number MAE No. 168-171. This is evidenced by at least two facts. Firstly, in the Miklouho-Maclay’s own catalog, number 171 is omitted, and, secondly, the comb number MAE No. 168-171 by its type refers to the combs from the Maclay Coast. However, at this stage we can only say that the final solution to the mystery of the Maclay Coast “third comb” from the collection No. 168 lies in the area of testing of the proposed model. This testing consists in comparing the handwritings of the card catalog, the handwritings of numbers applied to the items, and in sorting out all items of this class stored in the storage of the MAE RAS.
KEYWORDS: Miklouho-Maclay, identification, combs, collection No. 168, card catalogue
DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2022-4(18)-24-34
REFERENCES
- Belkov P. L. Kartochnye katalogi Otdela Avstralii i Okeanii. K istorii izucheniia rannikh okeaniiskikh kollektsiii MAE [Card Catalogs of the Department of Australia and Oceania. On the History of the Study of the Early Oceanic Collections of the MAE]. Sbornik MAE. Muzeinye kollektsii i sovremennaia kul’tura narodov Indonezii, Malaizii, Filippin, Okeanii [MAE Works. Museum Collections and Modern Culture of the Peoples of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Oceania]. St. Petersburg: MAE RAN, 2018, vol. 65, pp. 129–139.
- Miklouho-Maclay N. N. Sobranie sochinenii. Tom V. Risunki i etnograficheskie kollektsii [Collected Works. Vol. V. Drawings and Ethnographic Collections]. Moscow–Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1954.
- Miklouho-Maclay N. N. Sobranie sochinenii v shesti tomakh. Tom 6. Chast’ 1. Etnograficheskie kollektsii. Risunki [Collected Works in six vols. Vol. 6. Pt. 1. Ethnographic Collections. Drawings]. Moscow: Nauka, 1999.
- Miklouho-Maclay N. N. Puteshestviia [Travels]. Vol. I. Moscow–Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, 1940.