M0016048: Ancestral mask, New Guinea

Previous title, replaced March 2022: Canoe-head mask, New Guinea.

Carved wooden mask that would have been hung on a screen placed in the bow of a canoe. Created by the Iatmul people living along the Sepik River, New Guinea. It was included in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum exhibition "Medicine of the Aboriginal Peoples in the British Commonwealth" held in 1952 and published in Catalogue of an exhibition illustrating the medicine of the aboriginal peoples in the British Commomwealth. It was purchased at auction by the Museum in 1932 and accessioned in 1936 (accession number R7387/1936). It is not held by Wellcome Collection.

1957

1 photograph glass plate negative; 10.2 x 12.7 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register which provides an entry for the item: accession number R7387/1936. It also holds the publication.

Copyright is held by Wellcome Collection

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2021.

Please consult the digitised version as this item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.