Context (CMS Context)
Literature: See 'Artificial Curiosities' (1978), A. Kaeppler, p.66 and figure 77, p.65 : Probably prepared for use in a kahili. Evidence: Pennant collection of Cook voyage objects from various sources. (J.Tanner, May 1998). See 'From Pacific Shores: Eighteenth-century Ethnographic Collections at Cambridge - The Voyages of Cook, Vancouver and the First Fleet' (J. Tanner, 1999:48).
Cook Collection: Captain James Cook undertook three world voyages around the globe from 1768 - 1779. The stated purpose of the first voyage (1768-1771) on the HMS Endeavour was to send a Royal Society team to observe the transit of the planet Venus from the vantage point of newly discovered Tahiti. However, the primary governmental motivation behind the first expedition was to establish the existence of ' Terra Australis Incognita' or the ' Great Southern Continent' , which was believed to exist in order to balance the great northern land mass. Cook set sail from Plymouth on Friday 26th August 1768 and headed to South America, round Cape Horn and westwards to carry out the experiment in Tahiti, and then went on to circumnavigate the globe in pursuit of the presumed continent. The purpose of the second voyage (1772-1775) on the HMS Resolution and the HMS Adventure was to extend the search for the ' southern continent' . They sailed from Plymouth on 27 June 1772 and headed directly south past Cape Town and then set out on an eastward course of circumnavigation, crossing the Antartic Circle several times en route in an effort to seek the imagined continent. The third voyage (1776-1780) on the HMS Resolution and the HMS Discovery, was concerned with the search for a Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They sailed from Plymouth on 13th July 1772, heading first for the Society Islands from whence they set course to search for the Northwest Passage. However, Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779 and his command was taken up by Charles Clerke.
More than 2000 extant pieces can be traced from Cook' s voyages (Kaeppler:1978), of which UCMAA has 215 identified objects. The majority of the material at UCMAA was collected from the Pacific, but also includes objects from the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, the Northeast Coast of Asia and Tierra del Fuego in South America. Furthermore, all the three voyages are represented by objects in UCMAA' s collection.
(J. Tanner, 1999).
Event Date 1/3/1994
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Small plume of yellow and red-brown feathers. Possibly for attachment to feather cloak, feather necklace, feather helmet?
Additional description: Stem of item bound, securing feathers at top and a small piece of string at the bottom. Stored inside a small sealed box with glass lid. (J.Tanner, May 1998).
Event Date 1/3/1994
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Presumably previously on display prior to 1990 as was secured and displayed on its own in a small, glass topped mottled brown, card and wood case. Removed from box May 2012
Event Date 11/5/2014
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Display)
On display in Voyages section section of the Introduction to World Anthropology, (case 6), Maudslay Hall, from May 2012- 11 August 2020
Event Date 11/8/2020
Author: rachel hand