The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) is based in Exeter, Devon and is run by the local authority Exeter City Council. It was first open to the public in 1868, and its collections include decorative art, fine art, local and foreign archaeology, antiquities, costume, geology, natural history and ethnography. 

The ethnography collection contains approximately 12,000 items, of which a tenth is displayed within the World Cultures gallery, and artefacts are carefully displayed by theme. The collections from Canada and the USA are well documented in parts, however, much work remains in correctly identifying the provenance of artefacts, and the means of acquisition by opening up the stories of the donors.

Whilst the museum has some experience of working with communities of origin, staff are keen to be involved in positive relationships with indigenous communities and individuals, and to help facilitate collections access and research visits.

Collections

Learn more about all items in the Museum’s collections or the World Cultures collection. On the latter page there is a subsection on the Americas.

Regions Included in North American Collections

Collection Highlights

Arctic:

Around 150 items listed. Provenance as Alaska, Bering Straits and Canada. There are artefacts acquired by Lt. George Peard who served as midshipman on the HMS Blossom 1825-7. A qamutik (sled) that was brought to England by Parry in 1821, and later donated to the museum by the Devon and Exeter Institution. An Aleut kamleika (parka) which was donated in 1869 by Whitney. Material also acquired from 1874 by explorer William John Alexander Grant.

Subarctic:

A handful of items listed as Cree, Tanaina and Tlingit. Includes moccasins, a watch pocket, a shoulder bag, leggings, and a Cree tailored soft hide coat with leggings that was made prior to 1860s. Possibly made circa 1830s because of blue quills. Items incorporate trade cloth.

Northwest Coast:

A small collection of items associated with Nuu-chah-nulth, Makah, Haida, Salish, Kwakiutl and Tsimshian. Includes items acquired by Captain Cook on his third voyage (obtained by Henry Vaughan via 1806 Leverian auction) e.g. a Nuuu-chah-nulth eagle or hawk carved d-adze and a whalebone chitoolth. Other historic items were acquired by James Woodward Scott who served under George Vancouver 1791-5, this includes shamanic bear tooth pendants. Admiral Wallace Houstoun arrived in Queen Charlottes Island in 1854 and had obtained a set of Haida gambling sticks. Finally, Francis William Locke Ross, who had served on the HMS Tagus in 1813 and who became a well-connected private collector. Locke had managed to acquire a pair of Wishxam/wasgo region sheep horn bowls. Artefacts from this region also includes feasting spoons and dishes and a Makah cedar bark cloak that had been obtained by First Lieutenant JD Agassiz on the HMS America at Cape Flattery in 1845.

California:

There are 29 items listed, mainly lithics and a Chumash acorn grinder picked up by WSM D’Urban from Bartletts Canyon, Goleta, Santa Barbara. This group of items also includes a possible Karuk or Shasta deerskin dance headdress and a possible Hupa deerskin and pine nuts apron from NW California, which was acquired by the Reverend Francis Julian Dyson who had travelled widely 1885-9.

Great Plains:

104 items listed from this region with largely Blackfoot content. The two main donors of this material includes Cecil Denny who acquired regalia from Crowfoot during the signing of Treaty 7 and Edgar Dewdney who acquired, among other items, a ceremonial headdress identified by a Blackfoot delegation as belonging to the Motokiks head woman. This item was withdrawn from public display.

Eastern Woodlands:

About 40 items listed. Includes two Mi’kmaq ceremonial hoods that were bequeathed to the museum by William Charles Grant in April 1880. Grant served with the King’s Dragoon Guards in Canada in 1838, however, from 1874 his son William John Alexander Grant was an Arctic explorer and traveller. The bequest contains items acquired by both men.

Resources

• One can access the museum’s collections online (this is incomplete) https://rammcollections.org.uk

• Information about RAMM’s ethnography collection can be accessed here http://rammworldcultures.org.uk

• RAMM’s Plains (Blackfoot) collections are presented here (downloadable) https://rammcollections.org.uk/research-opportunities/current-research/blackfoot-collection-and-research

• Information concerning RAMM’s Blackfoot material is also held at the Blackfoot Digital Library - https://digitallibrary.uleth.ca/digital/collection/bdl/id/2553

QUESTIONS AND INQUIRIES

For Research Questions about Collections

Contact Tony Eccles via tony.eccles@exeter.gov.uk.

Contact