Colony and protectorate · 1896–1960
What hands made: country cloth spun and woven on the narrow loom, gara dyeing, baskets, pots, carving and smithing.
Many were made by colonial officials, missionaries and foreign visitors. Titles and descriptions come from the collections that hold them and can carry the attitudes and language of their time. We show them as historical records, not as endorsements. Dates, eras and categories were assigned automatically from those records and some will be wrong. If you or your family appear in a picture, you hold rights to one, a detail is wrong, or you think a picture should not be here, press “Report this picture” under it: your note reaches our editors with the picture attached, and they can take it down straight away. You can also write to hello@dt-ets.com.
Hammock of bast cloth with light brown stripes Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammock
Public domain (CC0) · Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm · Source ↗ · Report this picture
Hammock with yellow stripes and tassels Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammock
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Hammock of bast cord Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammock
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Hammock with dark red and yellow stripes Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammock
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Dark hammock with small tassels Collected 1930–31
Original title: Hammock
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Bast fibre for mat-making Collected 1930–31
Original title: Bast, materialprov, bast [for producing carpet]
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Split cane for plaiting mats Collected 1930–31
Original title: Plain material, material [for carpets]
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Plaited strip, perhaps for mats, Mende Collected 1930–31
Original title: Plain material, material [for carpets]
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Weaver's reed of wood Collected 1930–31
Original title: Weavers reed
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Loom heddles of wood and bast cord, Mende, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Weaving, shed
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Loom heddles, newly made and not yet mounted, Mende, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Weaving, shed
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Loom heddles, Mende, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Weaving, shed
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Spindle with cotton wound on, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Ten
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Bellow bellow Collected 1930–31
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Kissi stool with a foot carved as a woman Collected 1930–31
Original title: Stool
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Knife with a carved blade Collected 1930–31
Original title: Knife
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Plaited belt Collected 1930–31
Original title: Belt
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Wooden sandal on raised heels Collected 1930–31
A sandal carved from one piece of wood and raised on heels (the catalogue counts four; this side shows two blocks), held on by a cord between the toes. Raised like this, the foot stays above mud and water: the museum's English says it was "used in sumptures", which reads like a garbled translation of the Swedish for swampy ground. Who wore them, and where, is not recorded. Collected by the Swedish ethnographer Gustaf Bolinder on his 1930–31 journey through Sierra Leone. If you know these, tell us.
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Wooden sandal on raised heels (the other of the pair) Collected 1930–31
The pair to the sandal above: carved from wood and raised on heels to keep the foot out of mud and water. Collected by the Swedish ethnographer Gustaf Bolinder on his 1930–31 journey through Sierra Leone.
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Five-toothed hair comb carved from one piece of pale wood, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Comb
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Six-toothed hair comb with a carved chain handle, Vai, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Comb
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Loom Collected 1930–31
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Weaver's reed with a carved long-necked head, inscribed MUSSA Collected 1930–31
Original title: Loom tool
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Loom treadle, Vai, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Loom tool
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Loom treadle, collected 1931 Collected 1930–31
Original title: Loom tool
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Loom part (catalogue entry lost) Collected 1930–31
Original title: Flange
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Spinning, toy, toy [that spins] Collected 1930–31
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Toy, spinning, toy [that spins] Collected 1930–31
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Spinning top Collected 1930–31
Original title: Leksak, snurra, toy
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Blacksmith's double bellows In the museum by 1957
Original title: Blue bellows
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Anvil In the museum by 1957
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