Episode 2: I Don't Accept Horniman's Gift "Only Collections in the Building" by UCL Institute of Archaeology Podcasts published on 2024-02-28T11:56:36Z Only Collections in the Building Episode 2: I don’t accept Horniman’s gift. What does it mean to be generous, when that generosity is built on the exploitation of others? In this episode we explore the limits of good intentions and how inherited stories of public generosity impact on our ability to tell truthful histories in the present. The Horniman in South London takes its name from Frederick Horniman, a liberal MP, abolitionist and a Quaker. He is a man remembered in the Horniman’s institutional aims for his founding gift to the people of London in 1901. Horniman’s gift included his collections, a considerable plot of land, and money to build a new Museum that would “bring the world to forest hill”. But this world was a colonial one, and Horniman was a tea trader. It is a world that enabled this liberal man and others like him to travel widely, build imperial connections and drive significant profit margins, all without recognition of the labour, entitlement and exploitation that underpinned it. Only Collections in The Building is a podcast series by researcher and museum activist Heba Abd el Gawad, and Associate Professor Johanna Zetterstrom-Sharp, as part of UCL’s Institute of Archaeology AHRC funded Mobilising Collections for Institutional Change: Egypt at the Horniman’ project. In this episode we also speak to Nathalie Cooper, PhD student at the University of Warwick. The series is produced by Maria Christodoulou, creator of From Root to Vine. Genre Learning