Today, I had much better luck going through the archival material in the Gordon boxes as I focused on his correspondences with W.O. Oldman. By going through their correspondences between 1908-1913, I was able to track the Penn Museum's purchase of a +2,000 collection of African objects as well as a separate purchase of the Benin Collection. The most important piece of information that I found today was that the Benin collection stems from the Benin Expedition of 1897. In a letter to G.B. Gordon, Oldman writes, "“The important pieces such as the Bronze Head, plaque, masks, Aegis armlet, Dagger, Key, Vulture staff, small rattle staff and Execution Sword. Were all brought over by several officers of the British Primitive Expedition under Admiral Rawson in February 1897. They were sold by Auction in London end of 1897. And most were bought by Welster (a member of these pieces are illustrated in his Catalogues). He sold a lot to a private collector and there I was able to purchase ...
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