Otto W. Samson

Otto W. Samson

Dr Rer. Pol. Otto W. Samson
File:Samson, Otto W..jpg
Born	1900
Died	1976
Residence	122A, Adelaide Road, NW3 [census] Horniman Museum, SE23 [1949]
Occupation	museum work anthropologist
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1976 deceased elected_AI 1938.06.14

Notes

Office Notes

RAI Council 1941-42 Hon. Advisory Librarian
RAI Council 1942-43 Hon. Advisory Librarian
RAI Council 1943-44 Hon. Advisory Librarian
RAI Council 1944-45 Hon. Librarian
RAI Council 1945-46 Hon. Advisory Librarian

House Notes

1938.05.24 nominated
1941.10.28 In recognition of the work he had done in helping to evacuate the Library, Dr Otto Samson was exempted from paying his subscriptions for 1941 and 1942
1943.10.05 Hon. Librarianship – the appointment of Dr O. Samson was confirmed
1976.04 death noted (in pencil)

Notes From Elsewhere

ethnographer and curator (circa 1900 - 1976)
Born in Hamburg Samson received a classical education at the University of Freiburg, then in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg before beginning his professional career at the Hamburg Museum of Ethnography (Hamburgisches Museum fur Volkerkunde) in 1928. In 1929, he accompanied the head of department, Theodor-Wilhelm Danzel on a field collecting trip to China. During the trip, Samson travelled extensively in North China, contributing significantly to the three thousand item collection. His return to Germany was an unhappy one, with the Nazi seizure of power eventually leading to his dismissal from the museum on 'lawful grounds' due to his Jewish background. Soon afterwards he immigrated to London in late 1933 and found work thanks to the British social anthropologist, Charles Gabriel Seligman, who found him a position in the University College's Galton laboratory working on a collection of human remains from Southern Sudan. This was followed by an application for a travel grant, the Tweedie Exploration Fellowship, to India chiefly to 'study the material culture of villages in the Punjab and near Darjeeling with a view to determining Chinese connections". This trip broadened to also include collecting material within Burma and Tibet and lasted two years. After his return to England he soon began working within the Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography Department at the British Museum. He rose to become temporary Assistant Keeper (second class) in the department before taking the curatorship at the Horniman Museum in 1947.

During his curatorship, Samson greatly expanded the Horniman collection and collection strategy through several different initiatives. This included the establishment of a post in ethnomusicology and active collection of musical instruments; collecting through his own personal network including specimens he himself obtained from India during his trip in the thirties; and also the disposal of ethnographic collections by other museums in the 1950s including the Indian section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Woodlands Museum in Gillingham, Church Missionary Society, Reading Museum, the Royal Museum in Canterbury, the Wellcome Historical Museum and the Imperial Institute. The acquisition of masks was a central part of his collecting strategy but unusually at the time included specimens of English and European origin. This later emphasis characterised a collection strategy that was extended in the late fifties and early sixties with European ethnographic material being transferred or bought from various countries which include a large and significant ethnographic collection from Romania.

Related Material Details

RAI Material

census

Other Material

Horniman