"Collectors: individuals and institutions brings together sixteen essays both on specific collectors and the history of the formation of ethnographic and Asian collections in museums throughout England, Ulster and Belgium. The history of ethnographic collecting in the UK has received little attention until recently, and the present volume provides the only introduction in print to the development of important collections held by museums in London, Oxford, Exeter, Manchester, Ipswich, Halifax, Bournemouth, and elsewhere. The authors examine the circumstances and sometimes accidental events that led to the assemblage of important collections; the purposes for which they were made; the political circumstances under which they became institutionalised in museums, and the different ways museums have interpreted and displayed them. A number of essays examine the effects of new global relations on how and what museums collect today, and chart new directions in re-appraising our professional relations with non-western cultures."--Provided by the publisher.