One group of 50 objects consists of material from Ghana, Nigeria, Gambia, Cameroon, Dahomey, Congo, Benin, Angola and Malawi. A second group of 20 objects come from Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Somalia, Ethiopia and Zanzibar. The items were collected between 1800 – 1840.

The West & Central African material includes domestic wooden, gourd and pottery vessels; baskets; carved wooden spoons and ladles; amulets; carved wooden figurines and statues; weapons; personal ornaments; clothing, leather boots, hats, pouches, leggings; fabric and fibre samples; squeeze drum; bows; poison arrows and quivers and a lute.

he East and North African material includes shoes, sandals, hats, baskets, a lute, weapons, purses and spears.

This collection also includes items from Botswana, and is associated with the Zulu, Bechuana, Bushmen and Ammacassa.

The wide ranging collection includes: domestic wooden, gourd and pottery vessels; baskets; personal ornaments; clothing, pouches, belts, shoes and hats; whistles; carved wooden ladles and spoons, pipes & snuff bottles; knives, daggers, arrows and clubs.

There are at least 150 items in the collection with more to be documented.

Especially interesting items include a camel thorn Zulu stool, Bechuana hide cape, Zulu beaded dolls, Divination equipment, Zulu surgical instruments, snuff bottles, carved and decorated ladles, Zulu leg rattles and headdresses, women’s bead and hide aprons, and a sack cradle of antelope skin, decorated with about 30,000 beads.

The ‘South African Association’ exhibited a large collection of Bechuana, Zulu and other Southern African objects at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly in 1837. Richard Cuming bought a total of 120 objects from the subsequent sale of the exhibition, many of which still exist in the Cuming collection. A Scottish Medical Officer, Dr Andrew Smith who made the collection, was appointed as the first Superintendent of the South African Museum, Cape Town in 1825. Dr Smith’s interests were anthropology and natural history.

The collection bought by Cuming was made during Dr Smith’s expedition of 1834 – 1836 to the interior of South Africa. The expedition was underwritten by a funding organisation called ‘The Cape of Good Hope Association for Exploring Central Africa’, founded in 1833. The collection was later exhibited and sold to defray the expenses of his travels and repay the Association when he returned to England in 1837.

The Iziko Museums of Cape Town have expressed an interest in collaborating on researching this collection, as very little material exists in their collections that relate from Dr. Smith’s early expeditions.

A wide ranging collection including: domestic wooden, gourd and pottery vessels; baskets, personal ornaments, amulets, daggers, ropes, neck rest, hide bags, pipes, arrows, shield, ropes, samples of fibres and textiles.

The Cuming handwritten manuscript contains entries for around 33 objects described variously as coming from Sennar, Bahr el Abaid or Western Nile area, Dongola, Kordofan, Denka, and Tisheet. These places are all located in southern Sudan. The first European to explore the Sudan in search for the source of the Nile was the Scot, James Bruce, in 1770. The date of this journey is too early to be the source of Cuming’s collection.

As British control and influence in the Sudan did not begin until 1898 the Sudanese objects probably came out of the country via Egypt. In 1820 the Turkish Viceroy of Egypt sent a large party of soldiers to the Sudan accompanied by two Europeans. Ottoman control of Sudan continued until the 1850’s. The entries in the Cuming handwritten manuscript name a Mohamed Hamed Safir (or Safer) as presenting various objects to Richard Cuming between 1838 and 1846. He may have been in London as a representative of the Ottoman Empire but nothing is yet known about him.

.Collected 1780 – 1900, the material consists of figures, tobacco pipes, cast bound foot, shoes, hats, puzzles, cymbals, writing implements, toys, fans, and a comb collected by the Cuming family.

There are about 60 – 90 items in all

Collected between 1780 – 1900 by the Cuming Family, the collection consists of cloth, textiles, carvings, statues, amulets and shoes. They come from Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Gujerat, Hyderbad, Kashmir, Madras, Mysore and Southern India.

There are 30 – 50 items in the collection.

The collection consists of toys, figures, fans, boxes and a battledore (a sort of tennis racket). They were collected between 1850 – 1900.

There are 40 – 60 items in the collection.

The collection comes from Jamaica, Martinique, Cuba, Trinidad, Barbados, Bermuda and St Kitts, and was collected 1800 – 1840. It consists of carved gourd and pottery vessels; archaeological finds, fringe bark cloth samples, carved coconut and woven seed containers, fans and a spoon.

The Havana folding fans are of special interest. There are about 32 items in the collection, with more to be documented.

This collection comes from Guyana, Surinam, French Guyana, Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina.It is especially associated with the Aztec and other Mesoamerican peoples, indigenous people of the tropical lowland Amazon and Guyana basins, Inca and other indigenous Peruvian Highland and Lowland peoples and indigenous people of Tierra del Fuego.

The material consists of archaeological finds including bone and ceramic artefacts, decorated gourd and ceramic vessels, feather ornaments, woven bags; clubs; cloth, personal ornaments, stool, cassava grater, smoking pipes, necklaces, apron, cape; spears, fishing implements, arrows, baskets; musical instruments; assorted 19th century objects such as stirrups and mate cups.

There are at least 155 objects in the collection, with more to be documented.

Many items come from the explorer Robert Schomburgk who collected objects during an expedition sponsored by the Royal Geographic society to explore British Guyana in 1834-1839. During this expedition he explored the upper Guyanese River basin and collected and recorded botanical specimens and surveyed the geography. On his return to England Schomburgk exhibited his collection of Amazonian artefacts at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly in 1840. these were sold at auction at the end of the exhibition and Richard Cuming purchased around 50 objects. The Schomburgk material comprises an important record of South American Tropical Lowland material culture.

The collection covers Canada, the USA, Greenland and Iceland, and are associated with the Inuit; Cree, Ojibwa and other Woodland tribes, North West Coast tribes and Californian tribes.

The collection consists of domestic wooden and pottery vessels; baskets, personal ornaments, clothing and footwear, dolls, weapons, fishing implements, fish hooks, harpoons, spear throwers, darts, eye shades, scoops, boxes, pipes, mask, scalp, throwing balls, canoe and kayak models, snow scrapers, paddles, boxes, pouches, combs, and needle cases.

Especially interesting objects include Cree dolls, decorated buckskin suits and moccasins, Inuit carved bone objects including models, North West Coast artefacts including a wooden mask, a bracelet from Prince William sound collected on Captain Cook’s third voyage, and full length Inuit gut skin parka.

There are 155 items in the collection, with more still to be documented.

Collected by the Cuming Family between 1780 – 1900 the collection consists of sandals, slippers and sling bullets from Athens, the Ionian Islands, Latmos, Rhodes and Salonika.

There are about 25 items in the collection.

The collection consists of charms, St Bridget’s cross/bough, a bone cup, folklore-related items and some workwear.

There are approximately 25 items.

A small collection of footwear collected by the Cuming Family 1780 – 1900.

There are 10 – 20 items in the collection.

The collection consists of 260 items relating to the Polynesian community including New Zealand, Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga, Fiji, and other Polynesian and Micronesian islands, Papua New Guinea, Solomon and other Melanesian islands and the Philippines. There is also a smaller collection of 23 items relating to the Australian Aborigines

The Polynesian collection is wide-ranging and includes domestic wooden, gourd and pottery vessels; personal ornaments and jewellery; clothing including tapa and pandana leaf mats; wooden seats and headrests; wooden figurines and statues; fishhooks, lures and net weights; weapons, arrows, spears, axes, clubs, hand clubs, patu patu, quarter staves; ceremonial clubs, batons and paddles; tattooing instruments; boat bailers; ceremonial objects; adzes; headdresses; musical instrument and combs.

Interesting objects include a feather cape collected in Hawaii during the third voyage of Captain Cook. Many of the objects are outstanding or unusual examples, often very early if not directly connected with Cook. Many of the Maori objects are particularly good and interesting examples. Many objects are connected with early exploration in South Pacific: Captain Cook’s third voyage, 1778; Captain Wilson’s missionary voyage, 1778 and the missionary George Bennet in 1830.

The Australian Aborigine objects include domestic objects, bark bags and carrying sacks; weapons, boomerangs, knives and throwing sticks; fish hooks and personal ornaments.

Although there are only 23 items in the collection, these objects may merit further research. They are marked as coming from “New Holland” – a term for Australia that became obsolete after 1820. Since there are no Aboriginal objects in existence that predate the arrival of Captain Cook, and very little before the mid 1800s, these are relatively rare items.

The collection includes a “seals of purity” lamp, Mezuzah, Teffila, Ram;s Horn Trumpet and a Lephillim Bag, collected by the Cuming Family between 1780 – 1900.

There are approximately 25 items in the collection.