Banaba at Pitt Rivers Museum

My wife Barbara spotted two of these ornaments ornaments when we visited the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK, in December 2005. We visited again in August 2009 and I took some bettter photographs than were displayed here before. I also photographed two more objects we did not spot before.The Museum’s online catalogue shows six items collected by C F Wood in 1873, presumably during the trip he wrote about in “Yachting Cruise in the South Seas”, published in 1875. His collection was donated to the Museum by his widow Mrs Edith Wood in 1921.

Banaban ornaments

1. Accession no. 1921.93.372 Necklet, 3 pendants of turtleshell

Necklet of Shell disc beads with turtle shell pendante PANAPA (OCEAN ID) GILBERT IDS C.F. Wood coll. 1873 dd. Mrs Wood 1921

2. Accession no. 1921.93.373 String necklet with disc-beads of red shell and four pendants of red shell

Shell necklet PANAPA (OCEAN ID) GILBERT IDS C F Wood coll. 1873 dd. Mrs Wood 1921

3. Accession no. 1921.93.374. Neck ornament of shell.

OCEANIA MICRONESIA KIRIBATI, BANABA ISLAND Colected by Charles F. Wood 1870-73 and donated by his widow Edith in 1921.

4. Accession no. 1921.93.375 String of disc-beads of red shell, some circular, others shaped like 4-pointed stars

Shell plate bracelet PANAPA (OCEAN ID) GILBERT IDS C. F.Wood coll. 1873 dd. Mrs Wood 1921

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For full information on each item:

go to the Pitt Rivers on-line database at http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/databases.html
click on the in-text link “OBJECT & PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTIONS CATALOGUES,
select “Search the Objects Database”
enter the accession number and click on “Perform Search”.
When the next page appears, click on it to get a lot more information.