When Murray saw the cultural practices and craft production of Nigerian visual material under threat, he decided to collect these pieces in order to preserve, understand, and, perhaps, console during a period of great change.
Murray and a few of his colleagues, including Edward H. Duckworth, Bernard E.B. Fagg, and Ekpo Eyo and the antiquities department that they founded, built seven museums before independence, established export policies, began calling for the return of cultural heritage, and developed excavation protocol.
This book not only captures the life and legacy of Murray, but also explores the tension that arose among the colonial government, officers, and Nigerians who sought to build these cultural institutions during the twilight years of the British Empire and the transition to a newly independent Nigeria. (E-book $ 45).
