People, institutions, and entities connected to the histories and movements of Benin objects across the world are brought together through provenance research.
Drawing on museum records and their associated archival documents, more than two thousand names related to the ownership, collection, sale, and transfer of these objects are connected to the data, including figures involved in the British Colonial Military Campaign on Benin City in 1897. These connections reveal the networks through which Benin objects circulated and support ongoing research into their histories, displacement, and restitution.
| Actor name | Role | Provenance events | Linked objects | Linked documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Furman Gallery | Gallery | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Abba Isa Tijani | Museum Administration | 4 | 687 | 3 |
| Abdullahi, Husaini | Government employee | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Aberdeen University | - | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Abohim | - | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Abrams, Alvin | - | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Adam | - | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adams | Buyer at auction | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adams, Edward Coker | Donor, Member of the Royal Niger Company | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Adams, R. M. M. | - | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adamu, Alhaji | - | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Adeshina | Member of the Niger Coast Protectorate Force (NCPF) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adigun, Ganiyu | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adjuya | - | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adley, Robert | Government employee | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Admiralty | Government agency | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Adubowa | Member of the Royal Court of Benin | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Aduwa | Informant during Robert Elwyn Bradbury's research in Benin City, 1950-1961 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adérẹ̀mí, Adésọjí Tadéniáwò (Atobatele I) | Informant during Robert Elwyn Bradbury's research in Benin City, 1950-1961 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Adọlọ | Member of the Royal Court of Benin | 0 | 1 | 29 |
Digital Benin collates digital material from institutions, and some of this material is inherently colonial and contains words, terms and phrases that are inaccurate, derogatory and harmful towards African and African diasporic communities. Catalogue transcriptions, book titles, exhibition titles and museum titles may contain harmful terms. We recognise the potential for the material to cause physical and mental distress as well as evoke strong emotions. Owing to the scale of the collection’s data, a process to implement sensitive-content warnings in the displayed data is still incomplete. The material within the catalogue does not represent Digital Benin’s views. Digital Benin maintains a strong anti-colonial, anti-racist position and affirms its support for centring the humanity of historically marginalised and disenfranchised communities. Read more about the background of this statement here