James Thomas Hooper facts for kids
James Thomas Hooper (born September 1, 1897 – died February 9, 1971) was a British person who loved collecting old and interesting objects. He gathered many unique items from different cultures around the world. These included things made by the Inuit, Native Americans, and people from Oceania and Africa.
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Hooper's Early Life
James Hooper was born in a place called North Wraxall-Wiltshire in 1897. He started his amazing collection when he was just 15 years old, in 1912. His father gave him a special spear from a native culture, and that's how his passion for collecting began!
How Hooper Collected Items
James Hooper worked for the Thames Conservancy Board. But his real passion was collecting. He spent a lot of time searching for interesting objects. He looked in flea markets and small antique shops all over rural England. He also bought items from big auction houses, private museums, and house sales.
Hooper also traded items with other collectors and dealers. Some of these included William Ockelford Oldman and Kenneth Athol Webster. By the 1950s, James Hooper was one of the top four collectors of Pacific cultural items in the United Kingdom. He collected these items to learn about different cultures, not just because they looked pretty. Like Oldman, Hooper never traveled outside Great Britain to visit the places where these items came from.
The Totems Museum
After he retired, Hooper opened his own museum. It was called the Totems Museum. It was located in Arundel, Sussex, United Kingdom. The museum was in a two-story building on High Street. He ran this museum from 1957 to 1963.
The ground floor of the museum was filled with his huge collection of cultural objects. James Hooper and his grandson, Steven Hooper, lived in the rooms upstairs. A British Pathe newsreel film from 1957 shows a couple visiting the Totems Museum. The film gives a great look at how big and varied Hooper's collection was.
Hooper's Publications
In 1954, James Hooper helped write a book called The Art of Primitive Peoples. He wrote it with Cottie Arthur Burland. In this book, Hooper focused on art from places like Polynesia, Melanesia, North America, and West Africa. The book had 116 photos of items from his own collection. These photos were taken by R.H. Bomback.
Soon after opening his museum, Hooper published a guide booklet. It was called The Totems Museum, High Street, Arundel, Sussex : exhibiting the Hooper Collection of primitive art from Africa, the Pacific islands, New Zealand and the Americas. This booklet also had many pictures. Hooper also let visitors and researchers take photos of his collection. You can find pictures of his collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What Happened to His Collection
James Hooper passed away in 1971. But his collection continued to be studied. His grandson, Steven Phelps (now known as Steven Hooper), wrote a book about it. The book was called Art and Artifacts of the Pacific, Africa and the Americas: The James Hooper Collection. It was published in 1976 and had 250 pictures.
After this book came out, parts of Hooper's collection were sold at auctions. Christie's auction house held at least six auctions between 1976 and 1982. These auctions included:
- African Art from the James Hooper Collection (July 14, 1976)
- American Indian Art from the James Hooper Collection (November 9, 1976)
- Hawaiian and Maori Art from the James Hooper Collection (June 21, 1977)
- Melanesian and Polynesian Art from the James Hooper Collection (June 19, 1979)
- Oceanic Art From the James Hooper Collection (June 17, 1980)
- Important Tribal Art (July 7, 1982)
Museums with Hooper's Items
Today, museums all over the world own items that used to be in James Hooper's collection. They either bought them at the auctions or received them as gifts from other collectors. Some of these museums include:
