CfP: Maritime Infrastructures of Collecting in Colonial Contexts

Since the 2000s, questions concerning the provenance of objects that arrived from colonial contexts and are held in the collections of European museums, universities, and other institutions have fueled societal, political, and academic debates. Reconstructing such provenances is systematically linked to discussions about the possibilities – and challenges – of ethically appropriate ways of dealing with ancestors, human remains, and particularly sensitive objects. Despite all the differences regarding contexts of acquisition or appropriation, most objects from colonial contexts share a largely overlooked similarity: they were transported by ship and passed through ports. As a result, they circulated within a maritime environment with a specific set of infrastructures that transported them from their contexts of origin to other regions and situations around the world. Among the various worlds to which objects shipped from the colonies belonged, the maritime world deserves more scholarly attention than it has received to date.

The maritime dimension of collecting in colonial contexts, briefly outlined here, will be discussed at an exploratory workshop at the German Maritime Museum in May 2026. The workshop aims to foster dialogue between researchers and practitioners of maritime history, colonial history, collection history, provenance research and museum professionals from the fields of documentation, data curation, and digitisation. It invites an exchange of insights, methods, and challenges in current research, digitisation and outreach projects. Key objectives include enriching debates on colonial object provenances by highlighting the significance of maritime milieus and illuminating the interconnections between maritime and colonial history. The topic is embedded in a focus area at the museum and will be further developed through subsequent events.

As an overarching theme, the workshop explores how maritime infrastructures reshape our understanding of colonial contexts. It asks how stories of the translocalisation of objects via ships and ports can be communicated to a wider public through formats such as digital representations, data publications, and exhibitions. It further examines which perspectives on the relationships between maritime history and colonial history can be developed, what is required to make such stories tangible and comprehensible, and how multidisciplinary approaches can open up new ways of understanding the interconnections between these two fields.

In Germany, current debates on these issues typically focus on German colonial rule and thus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The workshop, however, explicitly provides space for examining the colonial empires of other powers and earlier periods as well.

Proposals for contributions (for the first workshop) may address the following topics, but are not limited to them:
- Understood in a historical-anthropological sense, “maritime infrastructures” encompasses not only material structures such as ships or port buildings, but also the social and cultural frameworks underpinning economic and logistical processes. What characterised maritime infrastructures in contexts of colonial rule, and how did they shape the translocalisation of objects from colonies to Europe? What difference did it make for objects to cross not only the border between colony and metropole, but also the threshold between terrestrial and maritime environments? In what ways did passenger, merchant, and mail ships acquire a specifically colonial dimension? And to what extent did it matter whether objects were transported on civilian or naval ships?
- The cargo space available on ships and the loading facilities in ports regulated the quantity, size, and weight of objects that could be transported from colonies to Europe. Transport by ship and through ports could also leave material traces on objects. To what extent did awareness of the conditions, limitations, and risks of shipping influence collecting practices in the colonies? How did transport-related damage, for example from moisture, affect the documentation of collections and the exhibition of objects?
- In addition to ships and seamen, other actors involved in moving collected objects are of particular interest. These include diplomats, academic and non-academic museums staff, travelers, traders, missionaries, dockworkers, shipping workers, and porters who delivered objects to colonial ports. All were shaped by specific forms of mobility and experiences of belonging and exclusion, and were positioned within a field of dependencies and constraints. What were the relationships between these actors and practices of “collecting”? What negotiations, requirements and conflicts arose within these interactions?
- Many “collectors” in the colonies relied on extensive networks, including local associates and intermediaries, middlemen and merchants at trading hubs, and buyers and researchers in Europe. How significant was the participation of seamen, dockworkers, and shipping entrepreneurs in these often transnational or transimperial networks of collecting? To what extent did they initiate collecting themselves, what kind of objects did they “gather” in the colonies, and what might they later have contributed to museums? Can seamen who collected independently be distinguished as a distinct type of collectors? How can their significance be made visible in collections and their digital representations?
- Not every ship that transported objects from colonies reached its intended destination. After accidents, confiscations, or hijackings, objects washed ashore in unexpected places. They could end up in the hands of auctioneers, natural history dealers, or organisers of swap shops – or simply be discarded. In some cases, seamen or dockworkers appropriated objects through theft, transferring them as stolen goods into irregular economies and networks. How do such episodes of loss, or of unplanned and (from the collector's perspective) unwanted recontextualisation fit into the history of the translocation of objects from colonies?
- Building on the conceptualisation of maritime infrastructures outlined above, the question arises as to the extent to which these structures continue to shape contemporary museum practices. To what degree do they influence digitisation strategies, documentation standards, and categorisations of objects? How did they manifest in epistemic power and ordering systems that persist to this day, and what systemic biases and absences have resulted from these historical continuities? How do these infrastructural influences differ across types of collecting institutions (e.g., ethnographic vs. maritime or natural history museums)? What are the implications for global connectivity (e.g. interoperability of object data) and the potential for re-contextualising these holdings in a post-colonial framework?

Researchers at all career stages as well as practitioners in the context of museum collections, archives and other relevant institutions are warmly invited to submit proposals for contributions in English. Designed as a workshop, the event is open for presentations on work in progress. Please send your proposal, including a title, an abstract of no more than 500 words, a biographical note, and contact information, by March 2nd, 2026 via this link: https://umfrage.dsm.museum/index.php/237667?lang=en

Travel and accommodation expenses can be covered to a certain extent in accordance with the Bremen Travel Expenses Act (Bremisches Reisekostengesetz). When submitting a proposal, please indicate whether you require reimbursement or can use own institutional funds.

For further questions, please contact us at MaritimeInfrastructures@dsm.museum