The Making of Museums in Nigeria

Amanda Hellman is director of the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery.

List of Figures

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: K.C. Murray and E.H. Duckworth Find Their Blue Ocean

Chapter 2: A Case for a Nigerian Antiquities Department

Chapter 3: Never Enough Surveys

Chapter 4: The Guiding Mission of the Antiquities Department

Chapter 5: Building National Museums

Chapter 6: Building Regional Museums

Chapter 7: The Independence Decade

Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author

Kenneth C. Murray was both of and ahead of his time, as a colonial civil servant who was a champion of Nigeria’s cultural heritage and emerging national identity. Amanda Hellman’s book on his paradoxical legacy and the history of Nigerian museums is more relevant and important than ever. Anyone seeking to understand the complex politics of restitution, museums, and cultural heritage in Nigeria today should read this deeply researched book on the extraordinary legacy of Kenneth Murray, Bernard Fagg, and Ekpo Eyo.

— Barnaby Phillips, author of Loot- Britain and the Benin Bronzes

Through the careful analysis of the personal correspondence of Kenneth C. Murray as well as other colonial actors, Hellman masterfully excavates the origins of one of Africa’s leading cultural institutions. Her nuanced study of the National Museums of Nigeria reveals a difficult history shaped by the passions of an individual and the values of the British colonial society in which he lived. At this moment of heightened discourse concerning decolonization and the restitution of heritage objects, The Making of Museums in Nigeria is an essential contribution to the fields of critical museum and heritage studies.

— Raymond Silverman, University of Michigan

Despite a burgeoning interest in the museum as an institution, close readings of individual histories are at present scant. Hellman’s text fills this gap, offering a carefully researched account of 20th century colonial-era national and regional museum formation in Nigeria. Hellman’s tracing of Nigerian museum foundations is consequential for a global understanding of Nigerian art, the current discourse of repatriation, and the role of museums in Nigerian identity formation in the 21st century.

— Jessica Stephenson, Kennesaw State University