Tamara Johnston
Bryn
Mawr College's Collections have been an asset to researchers, teachers, and
students for many years, but the African collection in particular has grown
rapidly over the past decade and has become one of the true highlights of
the College's Art and Ethnographic Collections.
Alumna Margaret Feurer Plass '17 initiated this period of development in 1990, when she left the College select pieces from her extensive collection. Recognized as a world-renowned Africanist, she and her engineer husband, Webster, traveled and collected for forty years. During her lifetime, Mrs. Plass made donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in 1956 she gave a major portion of her collection to the British Museum as a memorial gift in her husband's name. In 1967 Mrs. Plass was conferred the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her work in the field. Bryn Mawr's Plass collection exemplifies the depth of her collecting, which ranged from ancient Ethiopian terracottas to twentieth-century ceremonial accoutrements.
Later in 1990 Helen Katz Neufeld '53 and her husband Mace Neufeld presented over one hundred objects from the Neufeld Family Foundation Collection of African and Pacific Art. The Neufelds gave many more objects from their personal collection in 1996 and 1997. The Neufeld collection is currently the largest assemblage of African art at the College.
Over a twenty-five year period, the Neufelds collected in an academic and appreciative manner, learning a great deal about the objects of their interest and developing an aesthetic for their collection. Although their acquisitions ranged geographically across the continent and Oceania, most of the pieces are from West and West Central Africa and date predominantly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
When the Neufelds'
pursuit of African art ended, they wanted their collection to go where it would
continue to inspire and educate as it had while in their possession. Bryn Mawr
has amply fulfilled this desire; in 1991, a monumental Slit Gong from New Hebrides
Island was put on long-term exhibit in Canaday Library's foyer. In the 1993-1994
academic year, the first gift of the Neufelds was exhibited throughout Canaday,
and this year, under the direction of Collections staff, Catherine Foster '99
developed a small exhibit in the Rhys Carpenter Library on the Mende people's
Sande Society helmet-masks, one of which is pictured here. Many of the objects
from the Plass and Neufeld Collections have also been used for instruction in
Africana Studies courses.
The most recent addition to the African collections is a loan by Dr. Philip Kilbride, Professor of Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Kilbride's collection consists of contemporary ethnographic and artistic items he acquired while working in Africa over the last thirty years; most are from East Africa, particularly Kenya. With his loan, the number of African art and ethnographic objects at the College is approximately 300.
A selection from Dr. Kilbride's and the Neufelds' collections can be seen on display in the corridors of the Anthropology Department in Dalton Hall through the end of May 1999.
In September,
College's Collections and Special Collections will jointly produce an exhibition
on Africa that will be shown throughout the academic year in the Class of 1912
Rare Book Room, with ancillary exhibits in Carpenter Library, Dalton Hall, and
the Park Science Building. The entire exhibition will include examples from
the rocks and minerals collection, African art and ethnography, correspondence
and travel notes from Archives and Manuscripts, rare books, and materials from
the fine arts collection. Rare books will include volumes from the fine set
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, a gift of Katharine McBride.
At the time of the Library's last comprehensive exhibition on Africa, in 1975, the College did not have many significant African objects or a well-developed collection of rare books. Consequently, rare books and manuscripts from Bryn Mawr were supplemented by loans of objects, rare books, and maps from Margaret Plass, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, W. Graham Arader III, and Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Kip Finch. Twenty years later, Bryn Mawr College will be able to draw solely from its own collections to tell a story about African life and people, the Diaspora, and the influences of Africans in America. The extensive body of material that we have at hand promises to result in an exciting and engaging exhibit. We hope to see you this fall as the College celebrates the riches of history, art, and culture of the peoples of Africa.