Description (Physical description)
Solomon Islands Club
Event Date
Author: maa

Loan (Long Term Gallery Loan)
Saffron Walden ethnography gallery On Loan from 1982, renewed 1989; 1993; 1996; 2002. Renewal requested May 2007 for a further three years, renewed in 2012 for 2 more years, Nov 2012 for two further years and Nov 2014 for 2 more years until Nov 2016

Reference: Ln384
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
Typed catalogue card notes 'It was collected on Auki Islet, of [sic] the main island of Malaita but probably did not originate there.' and 'C. 503/ c. & d. Templeton Crocker'. Later addition in pencil: 'On loan to Saffron Walden Museum 1996.' A small circular red sticker is adhered to the top right corner of the catalogue card.
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Labels & Markings)
Museum accession number and also “C.503” written on club in white.
Event Date 7/2/2008
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Club of dark, polished wood with oval sectioned handle and rhomboid-shaped head with transverse mid rib. Handle wrapped with plaited sinnet bindings to crescent-shaped base. The whole surface of this binding covered with pigment (?earth).


Event Date 7/2/2008
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Typed catalogue card notes 'Head club of hard wood of the type called SUMBI. This name is in the KWARA'AI language of Central North Malaita. It belonged to a chief named GWAINDANDA and the club carries his name. There is a short diamond shape head also of hard wood.'
Event Date 19/2/2013
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
Presumably collected on the Charles Templeton Crocker Expedition to the Solomon Islands of the Zaca, March- September 1933. Ports of call included San Francisco, Hawaii, Palmyra, Puka Puka, Pago Pago, Samoa, Fiji, Tukopia, Vanikolo, Duff Island, Reef Island, Nupani, Sikiana, Tulagi-Florida Island, Tai Harbor, Quaibaita Malaita Island, Rennell Island, Bellona Island, Ugi, San Cristobal, Santa Anna, Santa Catalina, Santa Cruz, Suva, and Honolulu. The California Academy of Sciences Archives holds log books and other documentation from the voyages of the Zaca.
The 1934 Annual Report notes that ‘Two very important gifts have been made by Mr Templeton Crocker, of San Francisco; these include some hundreds of photographs, over three hundred and fifty lantern slides; and two reels of films of natives and material culture of the Pacific, many of them from islands which have hitherto been quite unrepresented in the Museum’s collections.’
The items are listed in the 1935 Annual Report 1934.201-520. This Report also note that ‘Mr C.B. Humphrey, Honorary Keeper of the Melanesian Collections… completed the re-arrangement of the Solomon Islands material incorporating the important collection given by Mr Templeton Crocker.’
Event Date 19/2/2013
Author: Remke van der Velden