Would you like to conduct provenance research yourself? The Colonial Collections Research Aids will help you get started
Provenance research into collections with (possible) colonial links helps to improve our understanding of heritage and forms the basis for assessing restitution claims. In other words: provenance research is very important, but getting started can be complex. That is why the NIOD has developed digital research aids to assist researchers and others who wish to gain a better understanding of colonial objects and their stories.
Provenance research by theme or category
Provenance research provides greater insight into the colonial history of the Netherlands, and into the process of coming to terms with and acknowledging the injustices committed against countries of origin and their communities. It helps heritage institutions to take a more critical look at their own collections and their role in the colonial past. Furthermore, provenance research provides a solid basis for assessing restitution requests from source countries.
But how do you get started with the research? The Colonial Collections Research Aids can assist you. They are divided into various subjects, and for each subject you will find a brief description, targeted search tips and references to relevant source material. For example, do you already know that you will be researching the role of Dutch civil servants in colonised territories or, alternatively, within specific museum collections? Then that is your starting point.
Aside from the research aids that focus on specific regions, the research aids are divided into the following categories and themes:
- Museums & collections
- Civil servants in colonised territories
- The trade in objects from a colonial context
- Army and navy personnel in colonised terriroties
- Scientific research in colonised territories
- Christian missionaries in colonised territories
The emergence of ethnographic museums in the Netherlands
As academic interest in the cultures, religions and customs of the inhabitants of colonised countries grew, the number of museums and collections of ethnographic objects in the Netherlands – and the rest of Europe – also increased. These institutions were established at the beginning of the 19th century, and the practice of collecting continued into the 20th century. Especially military personnel, civil servants and missionaries brought back objects from their stays in colonised territories.
In today’s museums, you can often deduce from their specialisation how the objects were brought to the Netherlands – via which route, by whom, and from which country of origin. The thematic categories of the search tools are therefore particularly useful for getting your research off to a start, but it is not unlikely that objects have travelled along multiple routes via various dealers before ending up in Dutch collections.
Research into colonial art trade
There is still much to investigate and trace through provenance research into colonial (art) objects, as very little research has been done on this subject to date. Compared with the trade in art from Europe or America, the archives of dealers in ethnographic and non-Western objects are less frequently preserved in archival institutions, even when dealers traded in both genres.
Provenance research therefore requires a different approach; it is essential to combine different types of sources and expertise from the countries of origin. Moreover, the trade in colonial artefacts continues to this day, which is why provenance research may sometimes involve dealers who began trading after the colonial period or who have even held auctions as recently as the present day.
Use the research aids
Would you like to learn more? All this information, and more, can be found in the Colonial Collections Research Aids. The Research Aids are a project of the Colonial Collections Consortium. The research aids have been written by researchers from the Expert Centre Restitution of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.