Wellcome Dispersal at the National Museum of Ghana Open Access

From 1950 to 1952, the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum (WHMM) dispersed material to Ghana to serve as a foundation for the National Museum of the Gold Coast in Accra (now the National Museum of Ghana). The dispersal includes about 550 archaeological and cultural heritage works from across Africa and Oceania, although largely consisting of objects from West Africa. In 2022, the first author (Gmayi) was part of the British Museum's International Training Programme and was able to create connections between the museum's WHMM dispersal and archives in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, Akosua Saah Buckman and Belinda Addo-Wiredu also joined in this inquiry and were part of the first meeting of the working group comprising dispersal recipient institutions in 2023.

Engagement with the group of objects from the WHMM has the potential to inform multiple future research projects related to museology in the late-colonial/ early-independence era and the history of collections in the UK and Ghana. First, we question the impact of the dispersal itself—how were the objects selected, and why? Second, what is the impact that this collection had on the future collecting trajectories of the National Museum? And finally, how do we understand the ongoing cultural significance of the works to the communities that made and used them, particularly given the circular path of departure from and return to Ghana?

The first avenue of research considers the dispersal itself and the ideologies that fueled it. Whereas many institutions within the network collaborating to reassemble, reconstruct, and interpret the African material from the WHMM focus on the its collecting practices and dispersal to European and American institutions, the material now in Accra has the potential to illustrate a different narrative. How can the dispersal of WHMM collection material to Africa reveal British and Ghanaian ideologies about emerging African national museums during the years following World War II and the independence era of the 1950s and 1960s? (Other examples that would augment the case study in Accra are the dispersals also sent to Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; see Russell 1987).

The National Museum of the Gold Coast in Accra traces its roots from the Achimota College (founded in 1927) and later to the University College of the Gold Coast to be administered on behalf of the government. In a letter dated September 21, 1950, Professor A.W. Lawrence, ex-officio director of the museum, described the museum's mission to WHMM Director E. Ashwood Underwood as follows:

The aim of the museum is to display the natural history, archeology, and ethnology of the Gold Coast but the two latter sections cannot be limited to its territory and must include relevant material from elsewhere—especially from the rest of the Sudan where the present population of Gold Coast seemed to have originated. And the teaching collection, to meet the needs of the College, will have to cover the archeology of all of Africa, including Egypt and the Greco-Roman civilization.¹

In this letter we see how Lawrence envisions the museum as a place of learning for the university's students. Underwood's response conveys an enthusiasm for such endeavors and that he would be “happy to advise” the Wellcome Trust trustees to approve the addition of the National Museum of the Gold Coast to the list of museums designated to receive gifts from the Wellcome Collection.²

Within the several dispersals that took place from 1949 to 1954, Lawrence, and later R.B. Nunoo, assistant curator at the museum appointed in 1954, were able to secure a number of works for the new museum. This included material from the Gold Coast region, but also archaeological specimens from elsewhere on the continent and many “ethnographic” works from Africa and Oceania. Lawrence's commitment to the teaching collection is further evidenced in a 1951 letter in which he explains to Underwood,

Several groups of objects emerge as possible focal points for scholars today that could reveal more about the museum's early goals. For example, we see targeted collections, such as items of personal adornment (a silver pin, a powder box, brass bracelets) from Northern Africa and a collection of tools from Indigenous northern North America (both United States and Canada). There also appear to be distinct focuses on three regions in Africa: Nigeria, Congo, and Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast). From these geographies, the dispersal included a range of objects (religious sculpture, personal adornment, musical instruments, vessels, and archaeological specimens) in what can only be preliminarily understood as an attempt to “capture” a view of everyday life in these places, as was the practice of typical museology at the time. Whereas the Congo, Nigeria, and Ghana collections attempt to represent a range of many aspects of specific cultures, other groups seem to demonstrate the Museum's intention to consciously select several “object types” for global comparisons.

This global perspective includes drums, blades/tools, pipes, and gourd vessels from across Africa and Oceania. Additionally, the archaeological collections take a global view and include many examples of ceramics and celts from across the world.

More work will be needed to fully understand the range of these collections and how they’ve been used and understood over the years at the Ghana National Museum. While Wellcome Collection archives preserve elements of the dispersal's logistics, we still lack a full inventory of the works selected for transfer to Ghana. Furthermore, work is needed in the Accra archives to fully explore the context of these foundational years at the National Museum, including: the connection to the university, the role of students, and, beyond the university, thinking about the role the National Museum took with the public. A brief mention in the 1953 annual report from the National Museum of the Gold Coast in Wellcome's archives discusses the possibilities of having two campuses, one for students in the newly constructed University in Legon and a second gallery in Accra for the public.⁴

The second research avenue considers the dispersals’ impact on the National Museum's trajectories. Today, about 550 works from the Wellcome Collection's gift are in the National Museum, within the larger collection of 30,000 works. Understanding the context of the dispersal and the selection of objects (the National Museum was often near the bottom of the selection order, with the British Museum choosing first, then a series of UK institutions, and then a tertiary list including the Gold Coast Museum), questions remain about the impact of this collection on later accessioning campaigns and overall collection trajectories. Further research is needed to understand the timeline of collecting and the general trends in acquisitions to see how the National Museum shaped its identity and mission through its objects.

Finally, we question the objects themselves and their significance to Ghanaians today. In terms of provenance, much archival documentation has been lost in this circular transport. Upon arriving in Accra, works were assigned new numbers in the National Museum's registry, largely severing them from their Wellcome Collection accession numbers. In limited instances, the registration logs have some information that may be a basis to provide further provenance for the works, connecting the objects to their Wellcome registration and accession numbers that may provide further collection history. However, in the process of dispersing and moving the works, many, if not most of the works have lost their Wellcome tags and numbers. So, we often lose the object's history of movement out of Ghana and in the UK, only knowing the details of its return. The museum will need to seek out new avenues to contextualize and conceptualize these broken collection histories and to suggest new paths forward with communities today.

Looking to the future, the museum will need additional funding to hire temporary personnel to continue the inventory process, inspecting works for any physical numberings left from the Wellcome Collection (see Eveleigh and Horry, this issue, for an explanation of the different numbering systems used by the Wellcome Collection over time), and then conducting additional archival research. It is the main hypothesis that, with the Wellcome Collection numbers largely lost, we will need to imagine new futures and paths forward for these objects. Community engagement panels may would be another focus for obtaining such information, allowing for additional input that may assist with the interpretation of the objects that have been so severed from their original contexts.