'Scenes hidden from other eyes' -- Theodore Bevan's collection from the Gulf of Papua in the South Australian Museum.

In 1888, the South Australian Museum purchased an ethnological collection from New Guinea that had previously been sent by Theodore F. Bevan and Messrs Burns, Philp & Co. for display at the New South Wales Court of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Exhibition in Adelaide in 1887. The identity of this collection subsequently became obscure prior to commencement of systematic registration of the Museum's collections in 1911. This paper reviews photographic, archival and published evidence to restore the identity of this collection, to uncover its indigenous cultural context and to relate it to comparable collections in Australia and overseas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]