‘Souvenirs of Theodore’: uncovering the legacies of Maqdala 1868 at the V&A

The Society for the History of Collecting is delighted to invite you to the forthcoming online lecture, 

delivered by 

Alexandra Watson Jones 

This talk will explore the Ethiopian collections at the V&A, examining the different ways in which objects are connected to the British Army’s 1868 expedition to Ethiopia and the looting of the fortress of Emperor Tewodros II at Maqdala. As well as recounting the story of some of the museum’s most famous and controversial acquisitions from this period, it will also share some of the museum’s most recent discoveries regarding lesser-known Ethiopian material in its collections, the results of dedicated provenance research over the past year. In doing so, the talk will emphasise the importance of museums conducting such research, and the crucial insights that can be gained through interrogating the ownership histories of objects in our care.