Loan (Exhibition)
Initial enquiry only
Event Date
Author: maa

Context (Acquisition Details)
Presumably purchased by MAA Curator Louis Clarke from Sir Wilfrid Peek, third Baronet (1884-1927), of the Rousdon Estate, Devon and probably from the collection of his father Sir Cuthbert Edgar Peek (1855-1901). Peek also sold a varied collection from his father's museum to the British Museum in the same year.
Details of Sir Cuthbert Peek's collecting remain unknown.

Event Date 1926
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Exhibited in 'The Proper Study of Mankind: Great Anthropological Collections in Cambridge' (known at MAA as the 'Centenary Exhibition') at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 12 March - 06 May 1984.
Event Date 12/3/1984
Author: Lucie Carreau

Description (CMS Description)
Large royal feathered cloak, similar to Z 6139.
Event Date 1/6/1996
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Photographed for Adrienne Kaeppler in 2010 for 'Intolerance', a project consisting of an exhibition and a 3 volume publication conceived by the contemporary artist Willem de Rooij, realized in collaboration with the State Museums, Berlin.
The project hoped to create a comprehensive index of Hawaiian feather objects.
Event Date 24/7/2013
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Display)
Requested for Hayward/Sidney loan, but loan did not materialise, 11/1/2006
Event Date 4/2/2015
Author: Rachel Hand

Research Visit (Anthropology)
RES.2017.2386 | Dr Natalia Przelomska’s project Deified to extinction? Insights into human impacts on Hawaiian forest birds through the genomic analysis of ‘ahu‘ula (feather capes)’sampled loose feathers from MAA’s Hawaiian feather capes and cloaks (‘ahu’ula). This aims to use genomic analysis of DNA from these feathers to discover firstly how genetic diversity has changed over time in the bird species, and secondly to provenance and identity bird species composition of the capes that have less information ascribed to them. The one-year project will be based at the US National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo Park (Smithsonian Institute).
Event Date 8/8/2017
Author: rachel hand

Research Visit (Anthropology)
RES.2018.2486 | continued research as part of 'Deified to extinction? Insights into human impacts on Hawaiian forest birds through the genomic analysis of ‘ahu‘ula (feather capes)This seeks to estimate the numbers of feathers in Hawaiian capes by analysing the patterns and counting the number of feathers in a sample set of feathered bundles. This is done by by counting the number of knots in transects, thereby estimating the number of bundles overall, and the frequency of rows with feathered bundles and without. The different colour section of the front are also measured as this connects to the different species used.
Event Date 25/6/2018
Author: rachel hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
Notes from Tim Teuton regarding the cloak from the Peek collection- 'As you probably know Cambridge has a very good cloak and cape which Louis Clarke got from the Peek's museum in Rousdon. I came across a rather interesting letter I think from Joyce of the BM to Clarke chastising him for sneaking in and taking them. Apparently the BM were in discussions with Wilfred Peek negotiating the purchase of a group of the best things from the Rousdon museum. Joyce rather foolishly told Clarke about it and he went straight to Rousdon and bought the cloak and cape telling Peek the BM would not mind as they had plenty already.' (from personal correspondence to Anita Herle, 2015-02-03)
Event Date 24/10/2020
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Filmed on 6 December 2021 with a discussion by MAA Director Professor Nicholas Thomas alongside Tahitian barkcloth beaters by the  NHK  Japan  Broadcasting Corporation for a programme (British Museum 8K - Part 3.) to be shown in Japan in spring 2022. 
Event Date 6/12/2021
Author: rachel hand

Conservation (Surface Clean)
CON.2022.5386 | Surface Clean
Event Date 14/6/2022
Author: Ayesha Fuentes

Conservation (Freezing)
CON.2022.5401 | Freezing
Event Date 23/6/2022
Author: Ayesha Fuentes

Context (Display)
On display in Case 28 (Hawaii) in Colour: Art, Science & Power, LKS Gallery, MAA 26 July 2022 - 23 April 2023.
Event Date 26/7/2022
Author: rachel hand