Loan (Exhibition)
Arunchal Exhibition: The Forgotten Arts of Arunchal Pradesh
Letter of the 25th January 2007- Exhibition in New York at the Rubin Museu of Art is postponed - possiblilty that the loan wil be resceduled for New York in 2008
Enquiry stage only. List above taken from 12/10/2005 email which reads:
\'The exhibition at Dresden is secure for October 2006 - March 2007. After that there exists a good chance that the exhibition will wander to the Rubin Museum of Art of the Himalayas in New York City ...
Regarding the inclusion of objects from Cambridge in the project it is still a bit open, since Dresden' s partner Leipzig is not accessible as yet for comparison of objects possibly stored there. But since you and I agreed that I would let you know by October what objects for loan we would be interested in so that you could inform the board at your next meeting, I am attaching a preliminary list to this mail. I would like to ask you whether it was possible to \' reserve\' these objects for the time span August 2006 till April 2007 until I can give you further notice and confirmation.\'
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Hat or helmet of oval form with domed crown and narrow brim. Made of closely plaited cane strengthened with thick cane strips.; Good; Whole
Event Date 26/5/1992
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
This is boxed with Naga artefacts.; Found: West bank of the Brahmaputra River borders or Assam and Tibet. (Northeast Frontier 1912).; Collected by: Somerset.Colonel;
Event Date 26/5/1992
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
The Cultural Group was originally given as Abor. This is an outdated name for the group now known as Adi.
Event Date 2/8/2012
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
'Hat or helmet made of tightly plaited cane with thick cane strips radiating from crown and around brim.; Good; Whole'
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
The duplicate digital record listed the ID No as 1916.21, which relates to the Annual Report number [See 'Contexts' entry above]. This record has now been cleared for re-use. The information from that record has been amalgamated, where different, into this record.
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: Olivia Maguire

Context (CMS Context)
This helmet has two catalogue cards, and originally had two digital records [the duplicate now cleared]. One refers to 1916.27, and the other to the Annual Report number, 1916.21.

The Catalogue Card for 1916.21 is a replacement card, as presumably the original card was not found, it reads: ‘1916.21 / Assam: Naga / Abor tribe / Cane Helmet / box 3.A.2 size X / Mrs Somerset’.
It appears that as the original card was not found the replacement card, and a subsequent digital record, were created to reflect a description of the object itself, suggesting that the helmet has the Annual Report number physically written on it.

The Catalogue Card for 1916.27, reads: ‘1916.27 / Asia / South Asia /India / Assam / [crossed through: see? Z 2631 no evidence for this - very different / JJ 23/11/88] / Box 3 A 1 size 1 / A helmet of oval form with domed crown / and various trains made of closely [crossed through: woven] / plaited cane strengthened with half straps[?]. / Arbor tribe, w bank of the Brahmaputra R/ / border of Assam & Thibet (N E Frontier 1912) / Mrs Somerset / AR 1916.20 / P.T.O / Obtained by Colonel Somerset during the / punitive expedition against the arbors and / mishmis in 1912-1913 as a punishment for / the murder of Mr Noel Williamson an Indian / government official & missionary in the spring of / 1911’.

Although the replacement catalogue card refers to 1916.21, this also corresponds to a different object from the same donor, a sword (E 1916.28). This seems to be due to the sequential order of the three objects (E 1916.27-29) from this donor, which are listed in the Annual Report for 1916 as: '1916.20-22. Arbor: Rattan helmet, iron sword in scabbard and ornate carrying basket with head-band. W. bank of Brahmaputra, N. E. Frontier. Mrs Somerset.' (pp. 7). Therefore, the AR no. for this object has been listed under 'MAA num' as AR 1916.20, to reflect this sequential order, with 1916.21 under 'Other nums' in reference to the replacement catalogue card.

The Z number referenced above, Z 2631, is also linked to E 1916.103.18, the catalogue card for Z 2631 reads: ‘Z 2631 / India / Assam / [crossed through: see? 1916.27] no evidence for this JJ 23/11/88 / v. different description of object / Cane helmet / with 2 discs covered with red seeds surrounded / by a margin of white clix seeds, each disc mounted / on a cane stalk. Between them is another cane stalk covered with feathers / no label / [almost certainly 19.103.18, though description of / latter omits feathered stalk. / Usually given as TANGKHUL. JJ 23/11/88] / [crossed through: Mrs Somerset].’
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: Olivia Maguire

Description (CMS Description)
Object has Annual report number written on it AR 1916.21
Hat or helmet of oval form with domed crown and narrow brim. Made of closely plaited cane strengthened with thick cane strips. Cane strips radiate from the crown and around the brim.
Event Date 7/12/2016
Author: maa

Conservation (Remedial)
CON.2016.3536 | Remedial
Event Date 7/9/2016
Author: Kirstie Williams

Description (Display)
'Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia' 07/03/2017 - 22/04/2018 MAA exhibition label text reads:

Reassembling Relationships in Northeast India

Collectors went to India for many different reasons. The fragments they sent or brought here, from which we try to construct a narrative, often produce rather fragmentary stories. Sometimes relationships between objects, and those between people, only become visible in the foreign context of a museum collection.

These objects all come from the northeast of India. Two were collected on a 1911 punitive military expedition to the ‘Abor Hills’, home to the Adi peoples (formerly known as Abor) in Arunachal Pradesh. One came from an Assistant Commissioner in the Naga Hills. Another was obtained in trade by a Railway engineer. Two of them were acquired independently by members of the same family and reunited at MAA.

1. Helmet (miimaak maakling lupro)

Cane hats like this, with crowns and rims reinforced with bamboo, are important symbols of status and identity for Adi men today, with particular styles favoured by sub groups such as the Padam, Galo and Minyong. This one was collected by Colonel Charles Somerset, a member of the 1911 Abor Expedition. It was donated in 1916 by his wife, for whom it was a trophy of war.

Padam (Adi). Arunachal Pradesh
Collected by Colonel Charles W. Somerset
Donated by Elinor Somerset (née Howell)
E 1916.27

Event Date 22/3/2017
Author: remke Velden

Exhibition (Li Ka Shing Gallery)
EXH.2017.2 | Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia
Event Date 8/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden