Hello, My name is Charley Scull and I am working as a Research Assistant at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Along with Carol Mayer I am researching the Museum's "Burnett Collection". Although today our museum is best known for its First Nations artifacts and works, and its European Ceramics gallery, the original collection was a series of Oceanic objects gathered by Frank Burnett. Burnett was a Scottish born, sailor, farmer, and entrepreneur who immigrated to Canada in 1870 and travelled throughout the South Seas collecting objects from 1895 to 1920. In 1927 (three years before he died) he donated more than fifteen hundred objects to our University. However, since this initial generous donation, very little work has been done on Burnett or his collection, and so my summer project has been to a)find out more about Burnett and his collection b) find out what other Canadian Museums have Oceanic collections, and if so of what age and how they were aquired (i.e. archival information on the collectors themselves) c) To look at the nature and climate of private collecting and collectors in the turn of the century time period. I have already found out a fair amount about Burnett himself, and also about some of the other Canadian Museums which have Oceanic collections through a CHIN search. One, now well known, collection is the Robertson, Vanuatu collection at the Redpath Museum in Montreal as described in an excellent book by Barbara Lawson "Collected Curios: Missionary Tales from the South Seas" (McGill University Libraries 1994). Any information about Oceanic collections (even outside of Canada), or suggestions of good background reading material on late nineteenth-early twentieth century collecting and collectors (we are treating the realationship between the collector and the collection as a critcally important one) would be greatly appreciated. If you have any suggstions whatsoever or can think of anyone who might, please contact me at my Email address: [log in to unmask] Thank you in advance, Charely Scull Research Assistant Museum of Anthropology, UBC