Governor William b. Caldwell’s souvenir: exoticism and a gentleman’s reputation

Journal article

The extensive collections of the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology include a remarkable object, a decorated and dried human hand. [1] The skin has been flayed to the final joints of the fingers, the fingernails are intact, and it is decorated at the wrist with silk ribbon appliqué and a feather pendant. It is a war trophy, of a kind found across the northern Plains in the context of inter-tribal warfare, along with scalps, finger-bone necklaces, and other culturally modified human remains. The hand trophy was donated to the Museum in 1907 by Robert Townley Caldwell, Master of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge, who said that it had been given to his father at Fort Garry in 1855.

Authors: Peers, L; Lindsay, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Manitoba Historical Society
• Journal: Manitoba History
• Volume: 73
• Publication date: 2013-11-30
• Acceptance date: 2013-08-31
• ISSN: 0226-5036
• Keywords: SBTMR