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Date of document publication: 2023-01-19

As of October 2022, Digital Benin entered into a 1-year extension. The focus of the extension is archival materials and photography collections relating to royal court arts from the Benin Kingdom.

For this extension we have three priorities:

1. Provide access on a digital platform or through links/source guide to archival material and photography collections
2. Identify and create relationships between objects, archival material and photography collections
3. Extract meaning from these archival materials

The materials we would like to consider in relation to the 5,246 objects displayed on Digital Benin are:

1. Historical context and Provenance: Archival materials which provide a context into events in the 1890s and thereafter, particularly during the time of the British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin, February 1897 (https://digitalbenin.org/provenance/1399). These include archival materials that give context to the loot, documentation recorded at the time about function(s), interpretation and cultural value of the historic objects, object movement and acquisitions (e.g. sales receipts, auction catalogues and correspondence).
2. Historic Photography: Prior, during and after the expedition historic photographs (and a limited number of drawings) were taken that give visual evidence to the events that led to the dispersal of the objects and their life after 1897. The photographs not only show evidence of the violence, propaganda and context of the events but they are also the only visual documents about the pre-colonial architecture, important sites and also portray important personalities in Benin history such as Oba Ovonramwen.
3. Notes and Papers by scholars who conducted research in Benin City and on Benin objects (mainly first half of 20th century).
4. Documentation on restitution and repatriation efforts throughout the 20th-21st centuries