ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Interpreting Borneo in Britain: interrogating the Charles Hose collections

• In Event: Collection Stories and Indo-Pacific worlds 4

English Abstract

Between 1884 and 1907, government administrator Charles Hose channeled several thousand ethnographic objects, natural history specimens and photographs out of Sarawak state. As Resident of the remote Baram District in northern Sarawak (in what is now Malaysian Borneo) and a skilled self-promoter, Hose was able to position himself as a conduit for much of the scientific knowledge that flowed out of Borneo through colonial networks. In doing so, he succeeded in shifting his status from amateur scholar-administrator to well-known naturalist and anthropologist, exerting a sufficiently pervasive influence on academic discourse that his voice can still be heard in many interpretations of Borneo’s history, cultures and environments today. Collections acquired through Hose are now scattered across multiple institutions in Europe, the US and Asia. This paper will share findings from the recent ‘Interpreting Borneo in Britain’ project, based at the British Museum, which conducted a data-driven historical analysis of the Hose ethnographic collections across 6 British institutions, and explored their significance for contemporary stakeholders. It trialed ways in which museums might approach reinterpreting these objects through community consultation and collaboration, to privilege Bornean perspectives over Hose’s voice. The paper will touch on insights into the history of scientific knowledge-gathering in Southeast Asia that have emerged from this project, as well as the challenges and opportunities faced by museum professionals in interrogating such complex object biographies.

Author

• Jennifer R. Morris, British Museum