The Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel is a museum of ethnography located in Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Sheltered since 1904 by the former Evole Pury, residence of the family of the same name, it presented permanent exhibitions on ancient Egypt, on the Himalayas collections the Cabinet of Natural History of the xviii th century of General Charles-Daniel de Meuron and the Cabinet of Curiosities of the 20th century. From 2015 to 2017, the Villa de Pury was completely renovated. The reference exhibition: The impermanence of thingsis inaugurated on November 25, 2017.
Contributes to the development of museums open to everyday life. Widely recognized as innovative, stimulating, even provocative, its exhibitions offer visitors an original reflection around a theme closely linked to current events and put into perspective by the gaze that is both involved and distant from ethnology. They bring together here and elsewhere, the prestigious and the mundane, the artisanal and the industrial as so many signs of a complex and culturally oriented reality.
In such a framework, the objects are not exhibited for themselves but because they fit into a discourse, because they become the arguments of a story that puts one or the other of their characteristics, whether these are aesthetic, functional or symbolic. Sometimes described as critical or destabilizing, such an approach aims to allow visitors to relativize their perceptions, deconstruct their knowledge and question their certainties in order to bring them to rethink their reality.
History
The history of the collections of the Museum of Ethnography of Neuchâtel (MEN) dates back to the 18th century, the first pieces being from the Natural History Cabinet of General Charles Daniel de Meuron given to the City in 1795. After several moves and sharing, the ethnographic fund was transferred on the hill of Saint-Nicolas in the villa offered by James-Ferdinand de Pury to install the MEN there, inaugurated on July 14, 1904. In 1954-55 was built a building intended for temporary exhibitions, decorated to the north of a mural by Hans Erni The Conquests of Man. In 1986, a new construction was inserted between the two previous ones to allow the extension of the University’s Institute of Ethnology.
Financially separate, the two institutions are nonetheless complementary. They share the same library and occasionally engage in joint ventures. Today, the MEN houses some 30,000 objects, more than half of which is represented by African collections: East and South Africa; Angola in the 1930s; Sahara and Sahel (Tuaregs and Moors); Gabon. It also conserves Asian, Eskimo and Oceanic collections, extra-European musical instruments and pieces from ancient Egypt.
The first funds of the museum come from the cabinet of natural history of Charles Daniel de Meuron given to the city in 1795. After several moves, the museum is officially inaugurated on July 14, 1904on the hill of Saint-Nicolas in a villa bequeathed in 1902 by James-Ferdinand de Pury.
The collection was then enlarged by the objects brought back by many Neuchâtelois missionaries.
The conservative successive were Louis Coulon between 1829 and 1894, who was also director of the museums of the city, his name being found in the history of the Natural History Museum, Frederic DuBois Montperreux between 1840 and 1848, Frederick Bosset between 1886 and 1892, Charles Knapp between 1892 and 1921, Théodore Delachaux between 1921 and 1945. Delachaux notably led an ethnographic expedition to Angola between 1932 and 1933. Jean Gabus, who made expeditions to the Eskimos, as well as to Africa, was director between 1945 and 1978 and Jacques Hainard between 1980 and 2006. Currently, Marc-Olivier Gonseth is the curator.
In 1954-55, a new building was built next to the villa. It hosts temporary exhibitions. In 1986, a building was constructed between the two existing buildings to house the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Neuchâtel.
In 1986, a new construction was inserted between the two previous ones to allow the extension of the University’s Institute of Ethnology. Financially separate, the two institutions are nonetheless complementary. They share the same library and frequently engage in joint ventures, of which the celebration of the Centenary in 2004 and the process of extending the buildings are two strong examples.
Today, the MEN houses some 50,000 objects, about half of which are represented by African collections: East and South Africa; Angola in the 1930s; Sahara and Sahel (Tuaregs and Moors); Gabon. It also conserves Asian, Eskimo and Oceanic collections, extra-European musical instruments and pieces from ancient Egypt. His innovative, daring and stimulating exhibitions are internationally recognized.
Collections
The history of the collections of the Museum of Ethnography of Neuchâtel (MEN) dates back to the 18th century, when in 1795, General Charles Daniel de Meuron gave his cabinet of natural history to the City of Neuchâtel.
At the beginning of the 20th century, James-Ferdinand de Pury offered his villa to the municipal authorities on the condition that an ethnographic museum be installed there. The ethnographic collection of the Museum of Neuchâtel was then transferred there and the Museum was inaugurated on July 14, 1904.
Today, the MEN houses some 50,000 objects, about half of which are represented by African collections: East and South Africa; Angola in the 1930s; Sahara and Sahel (Tuaregs and Moors); Gabon. It also conserves Asian, Eskimo and Oceanic collections, extra-European musical instruments and pieces from ancient Egypt. From 1984, his collection of industrial objects for everyday consumption – made in the four corners of a globalized world – became increasingly important to be, today, one of his strong points.
During the numerous expeditions carried out by the museum, various collections have been established.
African collections
The African collections are made up of more than 20,000 units of historical and contemporary inventories. They include, chronologically, series from southern and eastern Africa dating from the end of the 19th century, nearly 4,000 coins from Angola between the two world wars, mainly reported by the second Swiss scientific mission in Angola, and a large Saharan and Sahelian material (Moors and Tuaregs in particular) from the post-war period to the present day. In addition, there are more than a thousand pieces from the Ogooué basin (Gabon), including a famous Biéri fangand three masks acquired thanks to Doctor Albert Schweitzer. Since the end of the 19th century, missionaries sent to southern Africa by the Mission romande have provided the Museum with richly documented exhibits.
The first expensive acquisition (19th century): a sculpted defense of the Loango, was a gift from James-Ferdinand de Pury. As soon as the Museum was installed in the villa bequeathed by the latter, the officials acquired a collection of nearly 600 pieces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the repayment of which by annual payments would affect the Museum’s finances for at least six years (Vivaldi Virchaux collection).
West Africa is well represented by old ensembles (collections of the Ghana missionaries Fritz Ramseyer and Edmond Perregaux), more than 300 objects from the Claudius-E legacy. Monot and, recently, by field collections at the Fon in Dahomey (Claude Savary and Roger Brand and R. Wallow collections) as well as at the Rukuba in Nigeria (Jean-Claude Muller collection). A very beautiful collection of 100 small trade brands acquired in 2010 reflects a contemporary and urban Africa.
For Central Africa, which is abundantly provided, it should be noted, with regard to the DRC, the groups coming from former agents of the independent State of the Congo (1885-1908): Ami François Grasset, Max-Alexis Payot, Fritz -Alphonse Bauer, Doctor Comtesse, Louis Charrière. For Angola, a gift from Clément Drioton will be mentioned. The Museum has also been enriched with a small series of first-class objects from the old Hannes Coray collection and a few unique Lega pieces that complement more recent acquisitions.
Very little represented at first, East Africa was enriched by a considerable set of Christian crosses from Ethiopia (donation of around 400 pieces).
South Africa has some 1600 items, first due to Charles Daniel de Meuron, then to a whole cohort of missionaries, probably inspired by the example of François Coillard, including Edouard Jacottet, Eugène Thomas, Philippe Jeanneret, Arthur Grandjean, Doctor Georges Liengme, Paul Ramseyer, and especially the famous Henri-Alexandre Junod who sold to the Museum the famous sculpture of Moulahti: a Leopard devouring a… English. To this fund was added a series of very realistic masks of the Kondé from Mozambique / Tanzania.
Finally, Madagascar is represented by 250 pieces essentially dating from the beginning of the 20th century, which arrived at the Museum thanks to missionaries from Neuchâtel.
American collections
With its three well-defined subdivisions, North America (including the Arctic Regions, including Greenland), Central America and South America, the New World is represented in the Museum by some 3000 objects.
North America and the Arctic Regions share some 700 objects.
The first includes, by the contributions of Charles Daniel de Meuron, rare pieces of the 18th century: a basket decorated with the tight braiding of the Eskimos of the Pacific and a model of bark boat with characters, dated before 1799 and manufactured by young Indians from the Trois-Rivières region.
The Plains and Northwest Coast Indians are part of the rich collection of the Borel brothers given in 1882; Sioux objects relating to Ghost Dance were bought in 1895 from a follower of Buffalo Bill, George Dodane dit Jo des Lions, during his tour of exhibitions in Europe. Finally, 40 pieces from Haida, Tlingit and Hopi come from Henri Seyrig, including eleven old kacina.
The Museum only has 300 pieces of Mesoamerica; witnesses of pre-Columbian America and manufactured objects of the twentieth century or more recent, often belonging to folk art, both from Mexico and Guatemala. In 1993, he acquired a set of almost life-size papier-mâché characters from the Linares family made after the great earthquake in Mexicó.
The undoubtedly the most supplied part is South America with nearly 2000 objects, shared between the Amazon and the Andes. From Guyana come, by Charles Daniel de Meuron always, rare objects dating between 1756 and 1758; from the same source, a diorama signed G. Schouten and dated 1834; in 1900, reduced models of Suriname offered by Georges Dubois. From the beginning of the 19th century, clothing, weaving and weapons made it possible to evoke Brazil (Henri Borel, Léo DuPasquier, Alfred Berthoud-Coulon, Bellenot, A. Born collections) and perhaps its tourist aspect already with some souvenirs from James-Ferdinand de Pury. This fund will be completed in 1972 by the Yukuna collection of Pierre-Yves Jacopin and at the end of the 20th century by objects of Enauene-Naue and Erikpactsa.
As for the highlands, they were illustrated at the end of the 19th century by donations from Benjamin Schwob, representing Suchard in these regions, from Frédéric Carbonnier, which included beautiful Araucan jewelry. Concerning specifically the Quéchua, the important material that Ernest Godet had collected before the first war can be compared with the Odile Jéquier and Jean Louis Christinat collections. Present are pre-Columbian pottery, as well as gold jewelry. A set of pieces recalls the memory of the great Americanist Alfred Métraux. Finally, alongside rare witnesses to the Fuégiens of the 18th and early 19th centuries, documents by Robert Ponson, Frédéric Carbonnier and the results of both archaeological and ethnographic expeditions by Doctor François Machon evoke the extreme point of the continent.
Arctic collections
Among others, the Arctic collections of the Museum owe their expansion and their specificity to the entrepreneurial spirit of Charles Knapp, his curator at the beginning of the century. The global inventory was established in 1988 by Yvon Csonka.
The Eskimo-Aleut peoples are represented in the Museum by 331 objects (including five indeterminate) from almost all the regions they inhabit.
More particularly represented are the northwest of Hudson Bay in Canada, the Western Arctic, which includes Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, extending by convention from the extreme east of Siberia to the delta of the McKenzie river on Canadian territory, and the Eastern Arctic, namely Labrador and Greenland.
Asian collections
The origin of the funds of this part of the world is ancient and follows the canons of Orientalism which flourished at the turn of the 20th century. Even if contemporary pieces complement them, Neuchâtel has never really developed an acquisition policy in this area. Yet this immense continent, difficult to carve out, has never ceased to exert a strange fascination.
As a whole, the collections represent nearly 7,000 objects which can be divided into six areas: Near East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Far East, Central Asia (the latter including a large collection of Bhutan). The coins from North Asia, on the other hand, are very few.
The iconographic collection collected by Aimé Humbert, Minister Plenipotentiary who concluded a trade and friendship treaty with Japan on February 6, 1864, completes the corpus of Asian objects. Made up of some 2,500 images and 141 photographs, this important collection was used to write and illustrate the tales of the diplomat published by Hachette in the two volumes of Illustrated Japan (1870).
European collections
Unlike their German Swiss counterparts, who oppose the “Volkskunde” to the “Völkerkunde”, the museums of French-speaking ethnography have also included folklore (or folk art) objects in their collections.
Neuchâtel had for a long time hardly developed this sector – when he retired, Théodore Delachaux had only inventoried 24 objects out of the 400 or so that the fund had at the time.
However, it is through the collection of toys of nearly 2000 units (including 1575 for Europe), gathered by it and acquired just in 1950, that this part of the fund made a sudden jump.
The momentum continued thanks to the contributions of different countries of the former Eastern Europe aroused by several exhibitions of Jean Gabus between 1960 and 1970 approximately. From 1984 (pretext objects, manipulated objects), current products of industrial technology acquired for the needs of temporary exhibitions, which until then were considered as “decoration” but not as “collectibles”, started to be integrated into it.
Oceanian collections
Without competing in quantity with those of Basel, Geneva or elsewhere in Switzerland, the Oceanian collections of the MEN deserve attention.
Certain illustrious characters, in particular Maurice Leenhardt, missionary at Houaïlou, or Philadelphe Delord, his colleague at Maré, supplied the Museum with numerous objects.
Before the First World War, André Krajewski, a wealthy Franco-Polish, brought back a fine collection from his cruise in the Pacific. Most of this collection (mainly objects from the Marquesas Islands) was presented in 1914 in Neuchâtel on the occasion of the first “International Congress of Ethnology and Ethnography” and remained there, only to be partially dispersed in 1921, lack of financial means to acquire the entire collection. It is likely that the initiative for this presentation belongs to Arnold Van Gennep and that the famous Marquesan mooring bollard of the Geneva Museum of Ethnography (MEG inv. 8937) is from this lot.
Other prestigious specimens have joined the Oceanian collections of the MEN, such as the objects reported by WO Oldmann in London, Arthur Johannes Speyer, etnographer in Berlin, the Basel residents Paul Wirz and Gustav Schneider, as well as the Reverent Father Georg Höltker, who reported in 1942 material from the Bismarck-Gebirge of New Guinea collected during his study trip in 1936-39.
Collection of ancient Egypt
In 1800 the first Egyptian object appeared in the Neuchâtel collections. It is an Ibis mummy offered by General Charles Daniel de Meuron. During the 19 th century, the gifts of James Alexander and William of Pourtales Perregaux enrich collections including the mummy of Nakht-ta-Netjeret, keeper of the gate of the temple of Mut at Karnak, accompanied by a tank and a sarcophagus lid dating all three of the 21th dynasty and coming from the Theban region. In 1894, the Khedive of Egypt offered the Confederation several sarcophagi discovered at Bab el-Gasus in the second hiding place of Deir el-Bahari which contained 153 sarcophagi of members of the clergy of Amon. Four of them will be distributed in different Swiss museums: the museum of Neuchâtel receives the double sarcophagus of Nes-Mout for this purpose.
In the 1890s, the Neuchâtel Egyptologist Gustave Jéquier (1868-1946), who began his career as an archaeologist on Egyptian prehistoric sites with Jacques de Morgan, director of the Department of Antiquities and Museums in Egypt, brought back many objects (lithics and ceramics) which complete this small collection of Egyptian antiquities at the Historical Museum of Neuchâtel.
In 1926, Gustave Jéquier, who was a member of the Ethnography Museum’s commission in 1915, had these Egyptian objects moved and exhibited them in the entrance hall of the Villa de Pury. He will therefore gradually develop this collection, the essentials of which he acquires through the Egyptian Antiquities Service. During twelve successive years, he will carry out excavations in the Memphite necropolis of Saqqara in the vicinity of the pyramid of Pepi II, sovereign of the 6 th dynasty, and will bring back to each of his returns to Switzerland, objects from his own excavations, those of his colleagues or will buy them from antique dealers in Cairo. A series of wooden statuettes, mostly dating from the Middle Kingdom, contributed considerably to the renown of the Museum’s collection.
The particularity of the presence of this collection of Egyptian antiquities at the Museum of Ethnography in Neuchâtel is intimately linked to the person of Gustave Jéquier who held a considerable role in the history of the institution. His gaze as an Egyptologist allowed the development of a coherent whole covering the great historical periods of ancient Egypt, which, since 1926, has kept its place in the permanent exhibition halls on the ground floor of the Villa de Pury, until 2012, the year the rooms were dismantled for the restoration of the building.
From the middle of the 20th century, except for some donations, the acquisition of Egyptian antiquities is interrupted. The collection now numbers 575 objects and is among the largest in Switzerland.
Collection of musical instruments
The collection of instruments includes some 1,500 objects. A majority (900) comes from Africa, thus reflecting the general orientation of the heritage preserved in the institution.
All organological categories are represented, with a clear predominance of African idioms: bells, rattles, cowbells, sanza, xylophones,…
The oldest non-European instrument is a chopi xylophone (timbila type), acquired in Cape Town by General Charles Daniel de Meuron at the end of the 18th century.
Until the 1930s, musical instruments were not the subject of systematic collections, apart from a set of Kabyle flutes brought back by Arnold Van Gennep in 1913. It was not until the second Swiss Scientific Mission in Angola (1932- 1933) conducted by Théodore Delachaux, so that real reasoned, documented and playful series could be made up, such as the fifty lamellophones citanzi cokwe forming the basis of the sanza collection (see F. Borel, Collection of instruments music: the sanza. MEN: 1986).
In 1954, thanks to the privileged relations between Zygmunt Estreicher (1917-1993, ethnomusicologist then attached to the MEN) and André Schaeffner (1895-1980, his counterpart at the Musée de l’Homme), the MEN acquired the Bardout collection, rich in 410 instruments from all origins, especially from the French colonies in Africa and Asia. It includes a large number of cordophones including thirty kundi harps (Central Africa) among which there are some very rare examples, such as the nzakara model opposite.
Musical instruments from Sahelian countries (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso) are well represented, thanks to the numerous research missions undertaken by Jean Gabus between 1947 and 1976. This research was continued by Ernst Lichtenhahn and François Borel until today.
Note the presence of a hundred popular European musical instruments, most of which date from the 19th century. Among them, a metal rattle from the time of Louis XIII, used by lepers.
The collection can be visited on request by specialist researchers. It should be linked to the MEN sound archives. It can also be viewed online via our database
Photograph collection
In the 19th century, some photographs were able to accompany objects and, judging by their degree of erasure, follow them in the windows. At the very beginning of the next one, while the Museum is preparing to occupy its own building and have its own budget, a unique initiative is taken: the purchase from Father Henri L. Trilles of 12 enlargements concerning the French Congo of so. The process remains short-lived and the curator Charles Knapp collects only a handful of pictures.
Through his artistic training, but also as a result of technological developments that facilitate photography, Théodore Delachaux, his successor, is more open to the image. He accepts in this way the huge iconographic file of Professor Arthur Dubied which includes up to newspaper clippings (but also portraits of Barrak). But enrichments remain occasional. Delachaux will however contribute massively himself by the good thousand 6 x 6 shots he will bring back from the 2nd Swiss Scientific Mission in Angola (MSSA 1932-33).
This set will not be supplemented by its 24 x 36 counterpart due to Charles Emile Thiébaud until 1992. From the two series there is a choice of quality prints. Before the war, some old photos of Gustave Schneider will also be treasured.
With Jean Gabus, photography definitely takes its place but archiving does not follow. The rare documents of the Inuit (1938-39) who remained his property until his death are unfortunately often without legends and are mixed with those of the Lapps. Those of the “Goundam mission” of 1942 could be located, but those of the 12 other African missions of the Museum, which followed, also present similar operating difficulties.
The donation in 1950 of preparatory material for Illustrated Japan by Aimé Humbert which had been largely preserved brought in at the same time a good hundred photos from the 1860s including panoramas and works notably by the famous Felice A. Beato. Subsequently, some old albums come to document collections of objects, especially African, but their treatment is not systematic.
In the eighties, a lot dating back sixty years accompanied the gift of Mrs. Gabrielle Gediking-Ferrand, sometimes overlapping the Gustav Schneider son fund.
Film Collection
The Ethnographic Museum of Neuchâtel has a collection of films mainly related to the missions led by Jean Gabus from 1938 to 1978. For conservation reasons, this collection is currently deposited in the audiovisual department (DAV) of the City of La Library. Chaux-de-Fonds and copies can only be viewed by researchers upon request.
Reference exhibition
The reference exhibition shows various objects from the museum’s collections.
Temporary exhibitions
Between 2007 and 2012, the Museum presented an exhibition entitled Return from Angola, which covered the second Swiss scientific mission to Angola carried out between 1932 and 1933.