Imperial Museum Dynasties in Europe: Papal Ethnographic Collections and Material Culture (People, Cultures and Societies: Exploring and Documenting Diversities)

This book reveals the history of the Vatican’s ethnographic collections by exploring the imperial, scientific, technological, and religious agendas behind its collecting and curating practices in the early twentieth century. It focuses on two principal contributors: the academic, priest, and ‘Pope’s Curator’, Father Wilhelm Schmidt, SVD, and the missionary and linguist, Father Franz Kirschbaum, SVD. Their narratives are embedded in a unique set of comparisons between the ‘liberal humanist ideals’ that underpinned the 1851 Great Exhibition, mid-nineteenth-century German museology, and the 1925 Pontifical Missionary Exhibition. It relates to the period of high colonialism and rampant missionary activity worldwide. It unravels the complicated political and ideological stance taken by the Catholic Church and its place within the science/religion debates of its time. Establishing an essential link between the secular and catholic practices of collecting and curating ethnographic objects from non-Western traditions, the author proposes a broader framework for post-colonial approaches to scholarly studies of ethnographic collections, including those of the Catholic Church. This book appeals to students and scholars of anthropology, museum studies, history, art history, religion, politics, and cultural studies. Preface Introduction Classical Roots of Ethnographic Museums The National and University Ethnographic Museum as a Reflection of European Dynasties Inherited Dynasties of Princely and Scholastic Museum Enterprise Bridging Empires and Nations Introducing the Pontifical Missionary and Ethnological Museum to the History of Ethnographic Museums References Contents About the Author 1 The Ethnographic Exhibit as a Showcase of Liberal Humanism in Nineteenth-Century Europe 1.1 Liberal Humanism 1.2 International Exhibitions and World Fairs 1.3 The Great Exhibition of 1851 1.4 Musée Du Palais Trocadéro in Paris 1.5 Kunsthistorisches and Welt Museum in Vienna 1.6 Berlin’s Industrial Exhibition of 1896 1.7 The Unification of Italy and the Captivus Vaticani References 2 The Making of the Vatican’s ‘Modern’ Museum Dynasty: The Ethnology of Fr. Wilhelm Schmidt SVD 2.1 Primeval Monotheism 2.2 Schmidt and Kulturkreise 2.3 Schmidt’s Initiatives References 3 Old and New Dynastic Orders: German Anthropology in the Era of Bismarck 3.1 The Structure and Culture of German Anthropology 3.2 German Physical Anthropology 1860–1910 3.3 The Failure of Virchow’s Craniology and Rise of Neo-Darwinism 3.4 Comparisons of the GAS and Schmidt’s Vatican Ethnology References 4 Dynastic Networks: The Collision of Christianity and Colonialism in New Guinea 4.1 The SVD and Its Founder, St. Arnold Janssen 4.2 The SVD in New Guinea 4.3 Colonial and Missionary Interests 4.4 Plantations 4.5 Schools 4.6 Railways, Ships and Agriculture 4.7 World War I and the Inter-War Years References 5 Fr. Franz Kirschbaum's Contribution to Collecting in New Guinea 5.1 Kirschbaum, the Collector 5.2 Kirschbaum in New Guinea: Missionary and Explorer 5.3 Kirschbaum and the US Agricultural Exhibition to New Guinea 5.4 A Retrospective Account of the SVD in New Guinea 5.5 Kirschbaum’s Final Journey References 6 Material Culture Crossing Empires: Notes, Queries and Letters 6.1 Instructions and Ethological Observations 6.2 Guidelines for Collecting Material Culture for the PME 6.3 Kirschbaum’s Response 6.4 Preparations for the MEML 6.5 Letters Concerning the Kirschbaum Collection 7 The Pontifical Missionary Exhibition (1925): The Last Great Nineteenth-Century Exhibition 7.1 Official Accounts of the PME 7.2 Centralisation of the Missions 7.3 The Scientific Agenda 7.4 Structure of the PME 7.5 The Collections 7.6 The Ideology of the Displays 7.7 Beyond the PME References 8 Empires End and Ominous Beginnings: The Missionary and Ethnological Museum (1927) and the Lateran Treaty (1929) 8.1 The ‘Self’ of the Vatican: An Ideological ‘Self’ Versus a Cultural ‘Self’ and the Distinction Between Western Ethnographic Museums and Missionary and Ethnographic Museums 8.2 An Outline of the Structure, Collections and Displays of the MEML 8.3 An Outline and Tour of the Museum According to Wilhelm Schmidt’s Lateran Guidebook 8.4 Collections 8.5 Pius and Schmidt’s Achievements and Failures in the MEML 8.6 The Aesthetic and the Scientific References Conclusion Epilogue References