For Objects in a Collection, Documentation is Everything!

I’m a rising senior here at Wes, and last semester I had the amazing opportunity to work with Professor Wendi Field Murray in the Archaeology & Anthropology Collections (AAC) to build a tutorial centered around Museum Collections Care and Management. In the coming months, I will be sharing some of the lessons I learned.

Beyond Repair: Gankogui

The gankogui is a metal percussion instrument from the Ewe people in Ghana. It is made of two metal bells – one large and one small – fused together at the neck where a long thin handle is attached. Like many other metal tools in Ghanaian society, it is crafted by a blacksmith, who sources the material from scrap metal from cars, broken farm tools such as hoes and machetes, and even from other broken gankoguis.

Ephemera in Special Collections & Archives: The Newtonian system of philosophy by Tom Telescope

Enlightenment ideas about science and philosophy take center stage in this small book of lectures presented to children by a boy called Tom Telescope, the “little philosopher.”  The pseudonymous Tom explains complex concepts through conversation and demonstration with “familiar objects, in an entertaining manner, for the use of young ladies and gentlemen,” as made clear in the publication’s subtitle.