Pacific collections at Glasgow Museums
Glasgow Museums Pacific collection contains just over 3000 objects from across the region collected from the late 18th century to the present day, including a significant number of rare or unique artefacts of historical interest.
The earliest known object from the Pacific is a Maori free-standing ancestral figure, one of only six acknowledged to exist, brought to Britain after 1780 by Midshipman Samuel Folker. Also in the collection are the only known surviving ceremonial turtle posts from Dauar Island, part of a large donation from the Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinea gifted by Robert Bruce in 1889. Bruce was a Glasgow ship’s engineer and London Missionary Society teacher who lived and worked on Mer Island with his family.
In addition to historical artefacts, the collection boasts fine examples of contemporary Pacific art including works by Tom Deko and Chimbu artist Mathias Kauage OBE, both of Papua New Guinea, and pieces by Alick Tipoti of Torres Strait Islands.
Pacific Collections at Glasgow Museums
- Admiralty Islands collection
- Austral Islands collection
- Caroline Islands collection
- Cook Islands collection
- Easter Island collection
- Fiji collection
- Hawaiian Islands collection
- Kiribati collection
- Marquesas Islands collection
- Marshall Islands collection
- New Britain collection
- New Caledonia collection
- New Ireland collection
- New Zealand collection
- Niue collection
- Papua New Guinea collection
- Pitcairn collection
- Samoa collection
- Society Islands collection
- Solomon Islands collection
- Tokelau collection
- Tonga collection
- Torres Strait Islands collection
- Tuvalu collection
- Vanuatu collection
- West Papua collection