M0017947: Amulet in the form of a fish, Papua New Guinea

Previous title, replaced October 2020: Amulet in the form of a fish, ...Aboriginal peoples.

Photograph of an amulet in the form of a fish covered with red and black abrus with a long tail of string. It originates from German New Guinea (modern day Papua New Guinea) and was purchased at auction by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1930 and accessioned in 1936 (accession number R7037/1936). 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.

April 1960

1 photograph glass plate negative; 10.2 x 12.7 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register which provides an entry for the item: acc. number R7037/1936. Wellcome also holds the exhibition publication.

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 2022.

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