Crowdsourcing: business records of W O Oldman, a British collector and dealer in ethnographic art

“William O. Oldman was an early 20^th century British dealer who sold
many collections to museums and collectors around the world.

The National Museum of the American Indian initiated a collaborative
project with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa to digitize the
Oldman ledgers and make digital images accessible to the public. Te Papa
has digitized five Oldman sale registers and two collection ledgers
dating from 1902 to 1916. These collaborative research materials are now
available for review on the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive
https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAI.RM.001?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=William+oldman&i=0
. Since the ledgers date from the early 20th century and are
handwritten, they have also begun a Smithsonian Transcription Center
project to have them transcribed https://transcription.si.edu/ . You can
read about the project here https://si-siris.blogspot.com/2018/12/searching-for-oldman-museum.html

Also, here is a blog the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
posted about the
project: https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2018/12/22/help-reconnect-taonga-with-their-communities-and-history/

Oldman sold many types of ethnographic art (Oceania, African, Native
American), archaeology (the Americas and Europe), and European weaponry
among other items so these ledgers are relevant to many types of
collections. Once these ledgers are transcribed, they will be easily
searchable for collectors and institution names and may provide
invaluable provenance information.” (Museum-L)

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