S&SWM PR papers P117, 119, 120

P117

... South Kensington Museum, London, S.W. | 27th day of May 1874

E.L.M. No 4061 / 74

Bethnal Green Branch Museum

Sir,

I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22nd instant, addressed to Mr Johnson, stating that you have sold to Colonel Fox some of the objects belonging to you which are exhibited in the Bethnal Green Branch Museum.

In reply I am to inform you that it is contrary to the regulations of the South Kensington Museum that objects should be sold during the time for which they have been received on loan, and that the Authorities are therefore unable to recognize the sale to which you refer.

I am to add that at the expiration of the period (six months) for which the specimens were lent, you will be at liberty to withdraw them from the Bethnal Green Museum, and to transfer them to Colonel Fox.

I am,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Norman MacLeod

T.J. Hutchinson Esq | 98 Talbot Road | Bayswater, W.

P117

5th June 1874 Purchase of objects from Mr Hutchinson in Bethnal Green Museum

Anthropological Institute | Great Britain & Ireland | 4 St Martin's Place W.C. | May 27th 1874

My Dear Colonel Fox

I saw Mr Johnson this morning who told me about the difficulty of which you wrote in your note just received. I think Mr Johnson must be likely to obviate it, by not having these things enrolled. In fact none of my collection is yet registered in their books, so that must not be likely to come under the ban - the fact of my having disposed of them to you I explained to Mr Johnson I would not have done the latter but that they were to remain in the Museum. Hoping you will have no difficulty in the transfer

Believe me
Yours ... [illegible]
Thos Hutchinson

P117

... South Kensington Museum, London, S.W. | 5th day of June 1874

E.L.M. No 4323 / 74

Bethnal Green Branch Museum

Sir,

I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ultimo, addressed to Mr Thompson, with reference to the purchase of certain specimens which are exhibited by Mr T.J. Hutchinson at the Bethnal Green Branch Museum.

In reply, I am to inform you that under the circumstances stated in your letter, the regulation prohibiting the sale of objects during the period for which they are lent to the South Kensington Museum or its Branch at Bethnal Green, will be exceptionally relaxed, and the specimens which you have purchased may at once be transferred to your collection.

I am,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Norman MacLeod

Colonel Lane Fox | Guildford

This is 1884.57.21 and on

P119

... South Kensington Museum, London, S.W. | 16th day of February 1875

No 5

Sir,

The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education direct me to transmit the enclosed copy of a minute [insert] Form No 47 SKM [end insert] which they have passed in reference to the formation of a loan Exhibition of scientific apparatus to be opened in the South Kensington Museum during the months of June, July and August.

Their Lordships desire me to enquire whether it would be agreeable to you to act on this Committee and to afford them the benefit of your advice and assistance in the formation of the collection of scientific apparatus.

The Sub-Committee on the Biological Division of the Loan Exhibition will meet in the Board Room at South Kensington Museum on Tuesday the 23rd instant at 4 p.ml. when your attendance is requested.

I have the honour to be
Sir
Your obedient servant
Norman MacLeod

Colonel Lane Fox | Anthropological Institute | St Martin's Place | Trafalgar Square

P120

... South Kensington Museum, London, S.W. | 9th day of January 1878

ELM

Sir,

With reference to the proposed loan of your Collection of specimens now at St Martin's Lane, for exhibition in the Bethnal Green Branch Museum, I am directed to state that if you will be so good as to furnish this Department with an Order for the removal of the specimens to Bethnal Green, they shall be sent for, and cases shall be provided for their exhibition.

I am,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Norman MacLeod

Colonel Lane Fox | The Uplands | Guildford

P127

 

... South Kensington Museum, London, S.W. | 25th day of May 1880

A.M. No 2195/80

South Kensington Museum

Sir,

I am directed by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education to transmit for your information the enclosed copy of a letter from General Lane Fox, now General Pitt Rivers, as to the proposed development of his Ethnological Collection at present exhibited in the Western Exhibition Galleries at South Kensington; and I am to request that you will have the goodness to inform me whether it will be agreeable to you to act with the gentlemen whose names are given on the opposite page, as a Committee to report on the Collection and on the advantage to Science and Art which may be expected to accrue from the proposal made by General Pitt Rivers.

I am,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
Norman MacLeod

Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S.

Mr J. Fergusson

Professor Huxley, F.R.S.

Mr E.J. Poynter, R.A.

Sir P. Cunliffe Owen, K.C.M.G., C.B., I.J.E. and

Colonel Donnelly, R.E.

Professor Rolleston | &c &c | Pembroke College | Oxford

Note that Pitt-Rivers also attended the meetings of the committee as P129 makes clear (where he receives letters about arrangements for the meeting, and postponements). Normal MacLeod was an Assistant Secretary at South Kensington.

George Francis (probably) Duncombe (1831-1915) worked at South Kensington Museum, French-born British subject; served on the Executive Committee of the Great Exhibition of 1851. [See here] He might have been a member of the 1st Middlesex Engineer Corps. He seems to have been the Chief Clerk of the General Administration Department under Francis Sandford of the Science and Art Department in 1876..

Transcribed by AP for the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project August 2011