Jonathan C. H. King
Keeper
Management of the Department of
Africa, Oceania and the Americas, with the Centre for
Anthropology
Department: Africa, Oceania and the
Americas
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8024
Email: jking @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Jonathan King, as Keeper, is responsible for collections
including 350,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects from the
Americas and Oceania, and from much of Africa.
He is responsible for coordinating departmental
international programmes, especially in Africa and the Americas.
These involve collaborative projects and exchanges of skills
and resources with museums and heritage institutions in several
countries. Of particular importance is the sharing of knowledge
with partner institutions, both so that British Museum databases
are enhanced and knowledge of the collection is made more widely
available.
The Centre for Anthropology includes a library of 120,000
volumes, with subscriptions to 1,500 current journals, and a
Pictorial Collection of around 100,000 items – mostly photographs
but including oil paintings and works on paper. The activities of
the Centre for Anthropology are supported by the Royal
Anthropological Institute (RAI), whose library was presented to the
British Museum in 1976. The RAI’s Anthropology Index Online is
hosted by the Centre for Anthropology.
Jonathan King joined the Museum in 1975. He has been keeper
since 2005.
Current British Museum projects
History of ethnographic museums and
collecting: a project to make primary documents relating to the
history of the British Museum and other collections available
online.
Previous British Museum projects
1988. Living Arctic Hunting Games. These, the first
British Museum electronic games, were aimed at school use, with a
touch screen teaching traditional First National values including
balance, rather than maximisation of hunting, respect for elders
and for all renewable resources. In use in the Canadian Museum of
Civilization 1988-1998.
2001. Annuraaq. Arctic Clothing from Igloolik.
Ethnography web site.
2004. Native American Art. Irish American Trade.The
Stonyhurst Mullanphy collection. . Ethnography web site and
CD-ROM.
2004 Ki-Ke-In Potlatch, 69 minutes, 2004. Video of the
naming ceremony during a twenty hour feast, Vancouver Island,
2001.
External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies
External Member of the Research Board, British Library,
London.
Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, London.
Trustee, Dr Johnson’s House Trust, London.
Bill Reid Foundation, Vancouver, Member, Advisory Board.
Hakluyt Society, London, Member of Council.
American Indian Art Magazine, Scottsdale, AZ, Member, Editorial
Advisory Board.
Publications
J. C. H. King and C. F. Feest (eds.), Three
Centuries of Woodlands Art. A Collection of Essays, Vienna,
European Review of Native American Studies (2007)
J. C. H. King, Provenance. Twelve Collectors of Ethnographic Art
in England 1760-1990, with H. Waterfield, (Paris, Somogy, 2006)
J. C. H. King (ed.), Arctic Clothing, with B. Pauksztat and R.
Storrie. (London, British Museum Press, 2005)
J. C. H. King, First Peoples, First Contacts. Native Peoples of
North America (London, British Museum Press, 1999)
J. C. H. King, Imaging the Arctic. Ed. With H. Lidchi (London,
British Museum Press, 1999)
J. C. H. King, Artificial Curiosities from the Northwest Coast
of America (London, British Museum Company, 1981)