A shrunken head. Photograph, 19--.

Shrunken heads displayed on vases and as hanging baskets. Photograph, ca. 1890 (?).

Sarawak: preserved and decorated human heads taken and strung up by Sea Dayaks. Photograph.

Kalyo Kengyu, northern India: human heads hung up as trophies in a Naga village. Photograph.

Horatio Robley, seated with his collection of severed heads of Maori people. Photograph by H. Stevens, 190-.

The shrunken head of a Huambisa person of Peru. Photograph, 1899.

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<p>Head is detached and mounted on shelf</p>

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 14.4 x 10 cm

Head of a Maori person, with moko (tattoo) markings and a nose ring. Photograph.

1 photograph : photoprint, platinum ; 10.5 x 14.4 cm

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 9.8 x 14.4 cm

Two heads of Maori people with moko (tattoo) markings. Photograph.

Photograph of a tsantsa. It was previously held and displayed by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum but is not held by Wellcome Collection. Related images: M0016729

Photographic library: "M" series

"M" series glass plate negatives: M0000125-M0000242

1 photograph glass plate negative; 12 x 16.5 cm

M0000158: A tsantsa, or shrunken head, on a stand

<p>"The most gruesome offerings [auctoned by Henry Stevens] were shrunken human heads, sold by Stevens on several occasions, the most remarkable being, in 1902, the collection of thirty-three tattooed Maori heads, the property of General Robley, who, it is said, decorated his bedroom wall with these relics and 'when unable to sleep at night   would rise and comb his Maoris' hair, and felt himself soothed' (Allingham, 204-5). " (Michael P. Cooper, 'Stevens family (per. c.1830-1925)', Oxford dictionary of national biography, Oxford 2004). The accuracy of Allingham's account is questionable</p>

1 photograph : photoprint ; sheet 18.4 x 21.4 cm

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Shrunken heads

Images

Catalogue

Head of a Maori person, with moko (tattoo) markings and a nose ring. Photograph.

Sarawak: preserved and decorated human heads taken and strung up by Sea Dayaks. Photograph.

Two heads of Maori people with moko (tattoo) markings. Photograph.

M0000158: A tsantsa, or shrunken head, on a stand

Horatio Robley, seated with his collection of severed heads of Maori people. Photograph by H. Stevens, 190-.

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