With acquisitions dating to the museum’s origins in 1799, PEM’s outstanding Oceanic collection includes objects spanning the 18th century to the present from more than 36 Pacific island groups in Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Several hundred well-documented pieces distinguish these holdings, including works from Aotearoa (New Zealand), the Austral Islands, the Caroline Islands, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Hawai’i, the Marquesas Islands, the island of Niue, Papua New Guinea, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Samoa, the Society Islands (including Tahiti), the Kingdom of Tonga and Vanuatu (New Hebrides). The collection is renowned for its excellent provenance and strong aesthetic presence, as well as its exceptional quality, condition and mastery of materials and techniques.

Oceanic artists have expressed their understanding of the world through objects drawn from the natural environment, including figural sculpture, painted barkcloth and carved weapons. Through ritual objects and regalia, Pacific people communicate with gods and ancestors and affirm their divine lineage. Elaborate designs and graceful forms reveal connections between the porous boundaries of art, religion and life. Many of these works are imbued with ha, the breath and pulse of life, and mana, supernatural or divine power.

During the East India Marine Society’s first two decades of membership (1799 to 1819), nearly 20 sea captains and traders contributed more than 110 objects from the Pacific Islands, from religious and ceremonial objects to household items, adornment, fishing equipment and weapons. Logbooks, journals, letters and nautical equipment related to many of these voyagers are held in PEM’s Phillips Library and maritime collections.

The Peabody Academy of Science subsumed the society’s collections in 1867, and beginning in 1880, director Edward Sylvester Morse focused attention on building unrivaled ethnographic collections. In the early 20th century, curator Lawrence W. Jenkins worked with Salem patron Stephen W. Phillips to document and publish portions of the Oceanic collection. Phillips acquired thousands of additions to these holdings, including 28 objects from famed South Seas author Robert Louis Stevenson’s collection and more than 200 objects collected by Hawaiian missionaries Reverend Asa Thurston and Lucy Goodale Thurston. By the early to mid-20th century, director Ernest Stanley Dodge embraced the growing field of ethnology, which subsequently shaped the collection’s growth and interpretation. The Oceanic collection remains vital as we honor the many objects that embody spiritual, functional and celebratory traditions, linking past generations to the present and future.