Events in the history of the Pitt Rivers Museum that took place in 1939.
Readers are reminded that this table is a work in progress and may be amended or added to at any time.
| Month | Day | Event | Source of Information | Notes |
| January | 24 | Penniman appointed Acting Curator | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report | |
| January | 24 | Myres writes to Balfour asking him to support scheme for more specialized diploma of anthropology | Frances Larson ?JLMP mss, 81 |
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| February | 9 | Balfour dies | DNB entry; Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| March | 6 | L.H. Dudley-Buxton, Reader in Physical Anthropology, dies. He also donates large library to the PRM which is also housed at Crick Road | Annual Report 1938-39; Blackwood June 1939, Folklore vol 50 no 2 | |
| April | No day | Beatrice Blackwood gives lecture at Royal Geographical Society on 'Life in Upper Watut, New Guinea' | Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| May | No day | Sometime in this term the Chancellor of the University visits the Museum | Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| June | No day | Beatrice Blackwood gives lecture to the Folklore Society on 'Folk Stories of a Stone Age People in New Guinea' | Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| July | 1 and on | Beatrice Blackwood visits Canada, USA and Mexico and Pacific Sciences Congress in San Francisco from 24 July to 12 August | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| August | No day | Beatrice Blackwood visits Canada, USA and Mexico | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| August | 5-14 | Blackwood attends XXIVth Congress of Americanists in Mexico City | Annual Report 1939-40 | |
| September | 3 | UK declares war on Germany, Second World War begins | ||
| September | No day | Beatrice Blackwood visits Canada, USA and Mexico | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | |
| October | No day | Penniman employed as second Curator of the PRM from 1 October 1939 for seven years | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report | |
| October | 11 | Blackwood returns to UK from North America | Annual Report 1939-40 | |
| November | ||||
| December | ||||
| Unspecified | Penniman submits 'A Report on the Present Position and Immediate and Future Needs of the Museum' to the University Council. The report recommends 'the appointment of a permanent Assistant Curator, an increase in the technical staff with higher wages, and a larger annual grant. It asks that the present Geology Department and the original Lanchester and Lodge site behind the Museum should be allotted for immediate expansion and future building, in return for giving up Museum House for the use of Physical Anthropology, and puts forward a plan for building an annexe in sections.' The 1939-40 report records that the report was sympathetically received but shelved because of the war | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Reports 1938-39, 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | New offices, store rooms and working rooms were created above the workshops | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Anti-war protection was provided for glass roof, black-outs were not possible so staff could not work in museum after dark | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report | ||
| Unspecified | Balfour bequeathes large collection and library to Museum and these are worked on and displayed at 9 Crick Road, Oxford. F.C. Whiting is appointed to take care of collections. Balfour's library which was donated to museum is catalogued by R.J. Bates and R.C. Gurden | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | ||
| Unspecified | Penniman and Blackwood continue to teach and lecture. A 'Practical Museum' course is set up. | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | ||
| Unspecified | Work continues on card catalogue system for all Museum objects | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1938-39 | ||
| Unspecified | Heinrich Meinhard works on new accessions and photography | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report | ||
| Unspecified | PRM Occasional Papers on Technology series established edited by Penniman and Blackwood. It was hoped that the first publication would be Balfour's work on the Westlake collection, but this was never published (and seems never to have existed in finished form) | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Problems still experienced with heating in the Court due to the glass roof, wartime painting of roof helps somewhat | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Staff at museum include Penniman, Blackwood, Meinhard, H.J. Walters, H.F. Walters, F.C. Whiting, J.F. Green [cabinet maker] | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Volunteers at museum included Mrs Meinhard, Mrs Maspero, R.J.C. Atkinson and Mr Gibbs worked on cataloguing, Francis Howe Seymour Knowles worked on redisplays with Penniman and working on the card catalogues, A.A. Kennedy restored some musical instruments | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Reports 1938-39, 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Blackwood is provided with office in Museum | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Decision taken by Penniman not to evacuate collections. Blackout of the museum is impossible so work has to cease outside daylight hours. | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Accession numbering system introduced in Museum after consultation with Adrian Digby of the British Museum | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | Displays worked on during the year: Stone implements (Penniman with Knowles and Atkinson) | Relational Museum timelines/ Annual Report 1939-40 | ||
| Unspecified | John Linton Myres retires | DNB entry | ||
| Unspecified | A portrait of Balfour is exhibited in the Court, near the Entrance | Annual Report 1938-39 |
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| Unspecified | H.F. Walters revised key system in museum | Annual Report 1939-40 |
AP
