Author: Molly Holz
This fall I did my internship through the Nationality Rooms, located in the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh’s campus. The thirty-one rooms celebrate the diverse
cultures of the communities of Pittsburgh. They serve as functional spaces in which university classes are held, as well as holding individual displays in the room exhibiting cultural objects. Through my internship with the African Heritage Room, my main project centered around cataloging African objects that did not previously make it into the collection management system. I also documented the objects that did make it onto the site previously and ported the information onto a spreadsheet, as, the Nationality Rooms is in the process of finding a new collection management system. With the undocumented objects, I had the privilege of photographing the items as well as researching them to find out more information about the items. I greatly enjoyed my time interning with the African Nationality Room as my projects related specifically to my area of interest in archival work, as well as the ability to physically be hands-on with a collection.
One new item that I photographed was an Igbo Mwo Funeral Mask. The Igbo people are from modern-day Nigeria. This is an Agbogho mwo ("Maiden Mask"), which is worn during
agricultural festivals and funerals by prominent members of the village. The masks are believed to be incarnate dead whose purpose is to protect the living and create a plentiful harvest for the season. In the 'Fame of Maidens Festival' they represent adolescent females. The mask is meant to portray the ideals of feminine beauty. For example, a thin straight nose, a small mouth, and an elaborate hairstyle/headpiece. The base of the mask is white, representing the ancestral spirits, as this object would have been worn to accompany the deceased during their funeral rites. The masks were primarily worn by men and honor the figure they are representing. This object has a functional purpose, with eye slits cut out so that the wearer of the mask would have been able to see. There are also holes that are cut along the bottom of the mask as well. This item is utterly fascinating as it has multiple functions. It is also fairly large, and heavy. The fact that this was made to be worn is incredible!
With this specific object, it was easier to research it, as we had the name of the object, as well as the ethnic group that created it when it was donated. However, this is unknown for quite
a few of the objects in the collection. The ethnic group is simply not known, and cannot be specified due to a variety of reasons. For example, some of the art practices are occurring
throughout the continent due to intercultural exchange. With this, some of the objects are recorded simply as being ‘African’ with no specification to an ethnic group. As an intern, I made
a goal to create a new category in the search engine of the collection management system entitled “Geographical Region”. This way, even though we cannot specify the ethnic group, we can attempt to narrow down the object to one of the five geographical regions of Africa. The regions are North, East, West, Central, and South Africa. After I went through all of the previously documented objects, as well as the newly cataloged items, I found that the collection mostly holds West African objects. This revelation was very fascinating and made me think about the intention of collecting in the first place. Is it supposed to be a full-scope inventory, or can a collection lean towards focusing on a specific region? How does intentionally play a role in collecting?
Molly Holz, Museum Studies intern with the African Heritage Room through the Nationality Rooms, Fall 2023