Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 8–24 and ethnologist Robert Gordon Latham. One set was sent to London to be exhibited at Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Te other set eventually became part of the collection of the Ethnographic Museum at the Kongelige Frederiks Universitet in Christiania (now Oslo). 4 Te Ethnographic Museum opened in 1857. Tis record refers to forms of collecting, studying and exhibiting indigenous people at a time which marked a turning point in the way diferent global ethnic groups were perceived in relation to each other, and which saw the development of the notion of “race”. 5 At the same time, academic disciplines like In the archive at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, one of the frst entries in an old protocol containing various correspondence is a handwritten record dated from 1853 to 1854 entitled: “A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace in Sydenham”. 2 Over three pages, numerous Sámi objects are listed, starting with “a complete plaster cast of three Lappish convicts residing at the Christiana Tugthuus (prison)”. 3 Tis is a record of the collecting of a double set of Sámi artefacts that had government funding and was initiated by the Norwegian scholar, politician and journalist Ludvig Kr. Daa on the request of the British philologist Abstract: Tis article investigates the events surrounding the discovery of a double set of Sámi artefacts collected in Norway in the 1850s. While the collecting had received government funding and was initiated by a Norwegian scholar, the commission for it came from London. One set of artefacts was to be exhibited at Crystal Palace in Sydenham, a commercial venue reaching a tremendously large audience. Te other set became part of the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, a much smaller scientifc institution established in 1857. By turning the spotlight on the historical context and agencies of these two sets of artefacts, this chapter examines the notions of early ethnographic practices. 1 Keywords: Sámi collection, ethnographic museums, Crystal Palace in Sydenham, Ludvig Kr. Daa, Dr. Robert Gordon Latham, Kautokeino uprising. Silje Opdahl Mathisen A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham