James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific

Introduction James Cook and the Exploration of the Pacific Exhibition
is the name of an exhibition that includes around 500 items presenting the voyages of Captain Cook and the international team of scientists and artists accompanying him. Their work during the European enlightenment period contributed new insights to a host of disciplines from navigation and astronomy to natural history, philosophy and art.
It even led to the birth of a new science: the field of ethnology and ethnography.
When and where is the exhibition? The exhibition runs from 7 October 2010 to 13 February 2011.
It is held at the Historisches Museum, Bern, Switzerland.
What will be exhibited? Many ethnographic and natural history objects from diverse Pacific cultures, that were collected during the three Cook voyages and spread into collections all over Europe.
Magnificent paintings and drawings by the artists accompanying Cook on his voyages.
Ship models, sea charts and navigation instruments that provide a vivid introduction to the world of James Cook's voyages.
Why now? This exhibition is a cooperation between the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn,
the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology of Göttingen University, Germany,
the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Ethnology), Vienna, Austria
and the Historisches Museum, Bern, Switzerland
More information? Click here to visit the Bern web page for the exhibition in English or in German or in French
Where else can I see it? The exhibition was previously shown from 28 August 2009 to 28 February 2010 at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, Germany.
and from 12 May to 13 September 2010 at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Ethnology) in Vienna, Austria.

Some of the items featured Feather necklace or headpiece Feather decoration (lei) from Hawaii
A feather necklace made from bunches of red, black, and yellow feathers on a cord. It would have been worn by women.
The feathers came from the wild Hawaiian honeycreeper birds, such as the red-featered 'i'wi (Vestiara cocinea).
The yellow and black feathers could be from the 'o'o (Mobo nobilis) and the mamo (Drepanis pacifica).
This item could have been worn as a necklace or as a head wreath.
© Historisches Museum Bern
  Fragments of a mourning dress Fragments of a mourning dress from Tahiti or one of the other Society Islands
The fragments comprise a mask with feathers, a chest apron of small rectangular mother-of-pearl slips, a pair of pearl-shell clappers, a feather decorated shell, and three other mother-of-pearl disks.
The social system of the Society Islands had a strictly hierarchical structure consisting of aristrocratic, property-owners, free-inhabitants and slaves. The display of prestige and splendour, to which also the mourning costumes and their associated rites belonged, played an important role in the Society. A prominent personage wearing this costume led the procession of mourners and used the rattles to command the proper respect.
© Historisches Museum Bern

The necklace and mourning dress were collected by John Webber, the artist on Captain Cook's Third Voyage, who later donated them to Bern.
Many of the items in his collection of about 100 pieces are ordinary, useful things, rather than the "gift" or "ceremonial" items collected by Cook.

  Chinstrap penguin, Pygoscelis antarcticus Chinstrap penguin, (Pygoscelis antarcticus)
Painted by George Forster during Cook's Second Voyage.
Sailing among the icebergs of Antarctica in December 1772, Johann Reinhold Forster (naturalist on Cook's Second Voyage) described this penguin, which his son, George, painted:
"It is covered with small glossy & amazingly strong feathers, that hardly can be plucked out. The whole upperside is black & the belly of a fine silvery white; under the throat is a very narrow black line".
Georg Forster produced paintings of six different species of penguin over the course of the voyage.
© The Natural History Museum, London

Updated: September 2010

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