Captain A.W. F. Fuller’s Contribution to The Field Museum’s Easter Island Collection

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE CONCERNS THE CONTRIBUTION by Captain Alfred Walter Francis (A.W.F.) Fuller to The Field Museum’s Easter Island collection. Captain Fuller was an honorary curator at the British Museum, became a Royal Anthropological Institute Fellow in 1910, and had the honor of being named a Patron of The Field Museum in 1958 — a distinction shared at that time with only fourteen other individuals. Although he never entered the Pacific, Fuller amassed more than 7,000 artifacts from many islands including Papua New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons, Australia, Carolines, Marshalls, Palau, Gilberts, Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Samoa, New Zealand, Marquesas, and Tahiti. Having a great interest in Rapa Nui, Fuller also collected 242 artifacts and pieces of material culture from there. Many of these objects are exceptional and are rarely represented in other collections. By being a passionate collector, a meticulous caregiver, and a Victorian man obsessed with provenance, he left detailed records about where, from whom, and when he acquired objects from Rapa Nui. These objects and Fuller’s records help us to better understand Rapanui material culture collected during the early to mid 1900s.