Thresholds

“How on earth would you get that over your foot?”

“It looks like it’s been made from plumber’s piping.”

“Are these the ones that make a noise when you walk?”

“Which way up do you think you would wear that?”

“No one in Cambridge would get those on – all those calves ruined by cycling”

Daljit and I are in the Museum anthropology stores, wearing our purple object-handling gloves and looking through boxes labelled: ‘India. Personal Adornment: Foot and leg’. Mark (the curator) patiently answers our questions, explaining what things are, who collected them and where. Daljit carefully writes details into his notebook while Mark measures and photographs the objects. I open little tissue paper parcels and stare in wonder at the wealth of our collections. I’ve always known that we have a lot of stuff, but more recently I haven’t had the chance to get my hands on objects. What a treat this has been. Four small boxes chosen from our vast store. Daljit continues on his day, meeting researchers and collections staff, picking brains, finding stories, soaking up the Museum.

I return to my office, to the constant deluge of emails.

But I keep my purple gloves beside my keyboard. Just in case I get the chance to go back to the stores…

Image: toe ring (late 19th/early 20th) made of white metal.  The chain connects rings worn on the big toe and little toe. Part of a group collected in Delhi by Captain Henry R Lawrence and given to the Museum in 1909.

Sarah-Jane Harknett, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology