PRM1989_46_7
Title: A message stick held in the Pitt Rivers Museum
Date Created: 1883
Notes on date created: terminus ante quem
Item type: message stick in a collection
Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is given simply as “North Queensland”. It therefore cannot be associated with a linguistic area.
Dimension 1: 56mm Dimension 2: 11mm
Materials: wood plant
Techniques: carved, notched
Source types: museum collection
Date collected: Collected: August 1883 Acquired: Found unentered 1989 Donated 1888
Institution/Holder file: Pitt Rivers Museum object identifier: 1989.46.7
Collector: Field Collector: Edward Palmer Other Owners: Alfred William Howitt PRM Source: Alfred William Howitt via Edward Burnett Tylor? Acquired: Found unentered 1989, Donated 1888
Media copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum
URL institution: https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-25160
Notes: PRM Catalogue: "Display history: Possibly displayed at the PRM from as early as 1888 with other examples from the Howitt collection of message-sticks (1989.46) (see photograph A23.F11.1, taken in 1995). [JC 11 1 2006] Publications history, trails & websites: Illustrated as figure 5 in Plate XIV (entitled 'Australian Message Sticks') opposite page 331 of 'Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers', by A. W. Howitt, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol XVIII, 1889, pp. 314-332. (Copy in RDF). NB The original pencil drawings by Alfred Robinson used to produce the figures in Plate XIV are held in the PRM Manuscript Collections: Pitt Rivers Museum Papers / Box 2 / 1-3. [JC 20 9 2000, 17 6 2008] Research notes: Described in Tylor papers Box 12 PRM ms collections Howitt 11 as 'August 8 1883 ... [4] A friendly reminder from a Mycoolon Blackfellow to a Myappi Blackfellow, carried by Mr Palmer' [AP 06/02/2013]" Note that this is not the same message stick as that illustrated on pate 331 of 'Notes on Australian message sticks and messengers. This has a separate entry in the database.
Media Files:
Data Entry: Piers Kelly