Becoming a collection (1892–2001): challenges and practices in the curation of the Official collection at the Queensland Museum

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Official ethnological collection assembled by Sir William MacGregor (1846–1919) during his time as Administrator (1888–1894) and Lieutenant-Governor (1895–1898) of British New Guinea. This assemblage, comprising nearly 11 000 items, was transferred to the Queensland Museum between 1892 and 1898 through eight consignments. Significant gaps in the corporate history of the documentation for this collection seriously limit its current use. Several factors have contributed to this situation, including the initial registration (1892–1898) of the assemblage which was neither sequential nor without error, poorly documented dispersals, and a twentieth century re-registration process. The latter procedure entangled the assemblage with multiple, unrelated collections and transformed it into a different entity: the MacGregor Collection. This chapter charts the complicated registration history of the Official collection in the museum explaining how this unique assemblage became entwined with unrelated collections. It uses primary registration data to construct a comprehensive list of contents for the Official collection. The detailed analysis of the registration history of the Official collection shows that in order to obtain accurate information about historic collections, it is essential to consult primary documentation and registers rather than rely on later sources, such as secondary registers or computer databases based solely on them.