The Newark Museum's collection of Tibetan art has its origins in a group of over a thousand objects brought from Eastern Tibet between 1911 and 1920 by Dr. Albert L. Shelton, an American medical missionary. The Museum also acquired three other missionary collections from Eastern Tibet between 1928 and 1935, significantly enriching its holdings in ethnographic and ceremonial art. Buddhist paintings, sculpture, ritual objects, and dance masks; tents, saddles, headdresses, and weapons once owned by the ruling nobility as well as by farmers, traders, and nomads are among the objects in the museum's collection. These objects can be seen in context in rare historical photographs of 1900 -1950. These photographs document the rugged terrain and the traditional lifestyles of Tibet and its people in the first half of the twentieth century.