This page gives short biographical accounts for most of the people mentioned in the webpages of this site. The majority of them were active in museum anthropology at the University of Oxford or connected with the early history of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford up to 1920. The major players have longer separate biographical accounts discussing their lives and works, links for which are given on this page.
To find out more about all the people associated with the Pitt Rivers Museum's collections see here.
Henry Acland [part of 1998.267.85]Henry Wentworth Acland (1815-1900) His time at Harrow School and later at Christ Church, Oxford, was plagued with ill-health. He became a Fellow of All Souls in 1840, he was not required to be resident in Oxford and he decided to study medicine at St George's Hospital, London and later at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. In 1845 he was offered the Dr Lee's readership in Anatomy at Christ Church and he accepted. After he finished his qualifications he took on a medical practise centered on Oxford. As soon as he returned to Oxford he joined others in campaigning for a new honour school in natural science and trying to get a premises for the University's dispersed scientific collections. His campaign was to culminate in the building of the University Museum [OUMNH] which was completed in 1860. In 1851 he was appointed Radcliffe Librarian. He had a great interest in public health and the need for better water supplies and sanitary provision. In 1890 he was created a baronet by Queen Victoria. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1847. See his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [ODNB] entry. See also here for information about his links with Pitt-Rivers.
Henry Balfour [part of 1998.271.11]Henry Balfour (1863-1939) See separate report. See also his ODNB entry.
Frédéric Charles Joseph Marius Barbeau (1883-1968 or 1969). Barbeau was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford from 1907-1910. He took the Diploma in Anthropology examination in Trinity Term, 1910. He had taken a degree in Literae Humianores Science and Law at Université Laval, in Quebec in Canada after studying for some time for the priesthood. For his Diploma he researched 'Totemism of Northwest Coast tribes of North America'. After he left Oxford he was appointed to the Geological Survey of Canada and based at the National Museum at Ottowa where he worked as an Ethnologist and Folklorist, specialising in North American peoples, according to wikipedia he is now known as the father of Canadian anthropology. He retired in 1949. [This information is taken from the register for the Diploma in Anthropology, ISCA; see also his wikipedia entry]
Ernest Frederick Bayzand [dates unknown but c. 1874-?] Museum assistant at the Pitt Rivers Museum from 1905 until 1909 when he died, in post. He had previously been working in the Geological Department. Balfour reported that he had 'experience in draftsmanship, photography and various handicrafts, [and] should prove a useful accession to the Museum staff.' He was replaced by George Kettle [qv]. He was described in the 1901 census as an 'Architectural Assistant', who had been born in Oxford and was still living there. [Information based on Balfour's entries in Annual Reports]
Winifred Susan Blackman (1872-1950). Her brother was Aylward Manley Blackman, the Egyptologist. She commenced the Diploma in Anthropology in 1912 when she was forty years old, being recommended by Seligman. After graduating in 1915 she volunteered in the Pitt Rivers Museum until 1920. In the early 1920s she undertook her first ethnographic research in Egypt, which work she continued (when financial support was available). She was the Librarian in the Department of Social Anthropology from 1919. [This account taken from Alice Stevenson, http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2000/481/bk3_481.htm; ISCA diploma register] See here for more information.
Beatrice Blackwood [part of 1998.271.75]Beatrice Blackwood (1889-1975) See separate report. See also her ODNB entry.
Benjamin Collins Brodie (1817-1880) Waynflete Professor of Chemistry. Studied mathematics at Balliol College, Oxford, trained at the bar in Lincoln's Inn and then decided to study chemistry at Giessen, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1850. He worked in his private laboratory from 1845 until 1855 when he was elected to the Aldrichian chair of chemistry at Oxford. In 1865 this chair was renamed the Waynflete. He resigned in 1872 from ill-health. See his ODNB entry for further information
Leonard Halford Dudley Buxton (1889-1939). Educated at Radley College and Exeter College, University of Oxford. He started the Diploma in Anthropology in Hilary Term 1911 and was given a distinction in 1912. In 1912 he was a member of the Sudan Wellcome Expedition, and visited Cyprus in 1913--14. In 1913 he was appointed Demonstrator in Physical Anthropology at the OUMNH. He served in the army during the First World War. In 1922 he was appointed Lecturer in Physical Anthropology He was the University Reader in Physical Anthropology from 1928. Buxton fulfilled a wide variety of roles for the University in addition to his teaching, being at different times Senior Proctor, Curator of the University Parks and of the Schools and Bursar, Dean and Tutor at Exeter College. He served as a city councillor and was also on the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). (Blackwood 1939: 204) Although Buxton was largely a physical anthropologist, he was interested in wider anthropological matters, ethnography and folklore studies. (Blackwood 1939: 204) He also wrote a guide to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Farnham (founded by Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, the founder of the museum in Oxford). [This account taken from his Who Was Who entry, and the register of the diploma in anthropology and this paper]
George Reginald Carline, from Wellcome Library http://images.wellcome.ac.uk/indexplus/image/V0027861.htmlGeorge Reginald Carline (1885-1932). He was educated at Repton and at Exeter College, Oxford. He also had a Diploma in Anthropology. He worked as an assistant curator at the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary. He worked at the Pitt Rivers Museum from 1919 to 1926 and served as first president of the Oxford University Archaeological Society from its foundation in 1919. He excavated with Gertrude Caton-Thompson in Egypt from 1925-6. He was curator of the Bankfield Museum in Halifax from 1926 until his death in 1932. [This account taken from his Obituary in Folklore, Vol. 44, No. 1. (Mar., 1933), pp. 115-116; Pitt Rivers Museum biographies database - source undisclosed] See here for more information.
F.C. Carter [dates unknown]. He obviously had an M.A. from Oxford University and in the 1904 Annual Report is said, by Balfour to have 'kindly helped me by taking numerous photographs of objects in the Museum and in preparing lantern-slides for lecture purposes.' [Information for undisclosed sources]
Louis Colville Gray Clarke (1881-1960). Educated privately and went up to Trinity Hall, Cambridge to read the history tripos, graduating in 1903. His wealthy family ensured that he could travel widely in Europe, Central and South America and Ethiopia whilst he was an undergraduate. He served during the first World War. He matriculated in the Diploma in Anthropology in 1919 at Exeter College. He also served as a volunteer in the Museum. In 1922 he was appointed Curator at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. In 1937 he was appointed as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. He retired in 1946 but remained the honorary curator of prints. He had amassed a large art collection which he donated to the University of Cambridge. See his ODNB entry
Robert Bellamy Clifton (1836-1921) Professor of Experimental Philosophy. He studied at University College, London and St John's College, Cambridge. In 1860 he was appointed the first professor of natural philosophy at Owens College, Manchester. In 1865 he was appointed to the newly created chair of experimental philosophy at Oxford. He was instrumental in establishing the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford which was completed in 1872. For further information see his ODNB entry.
Maria Antoinette Czaplicka 1998.271.41Maria Antoinette Czaplicka (1884-1921). Born in Warsaw and educated and trained as a geography teacher in Warsaw and in Latvia. From 1906 to 1909 she studied natural history at Warsaw Museum. In 1910 she travelled to London to study ethnology at the London School of Economics. In 1911-12 she obtained the Diploma in Anthropology whilst at Somerville College. In 1914 she travelled to Siberia to carry out fieldwork with three colleagues. From 1916-1919, Maria Czaplicka lectured in Ethnology for the Professor of Human Anatomy under the Committee for Anthropology, firstly as the Mary Ewart lecturer and then as a University Lecturer. and a member of Lady Margaret Hall. From 1920 she lectured in anthropology at Bristol University, she committed suicide in 1921. See her Oxford DNB entry
H.N. Deane [unknown dates] Dublin-based architect of the extension to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History that became the Pitt Rivers Museum. His father, Thomas Newenham Deane, and Benjamin Woodward had provided the basic plans for the Oxford University Museum. [Information from undisclosed sources]
George Francis Duncombe (1831-1915) of Department of Science and Art, 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. [Based on various web articles particularly references in the Fox-Talbot archive, none of this information is very substantiated]
Arthur John Evans (1851-1941). The son of John Evans, he was educated at Harrow and entered Brasenose College and studied modern history. He travelled widely in the Balkans and Scandinavia. In 1884 he was appointed keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. In the early years he carried out excavations in England, and from 1894 he travelled and excavated in Crete, Greece. He resigned from the keepership of the Ashmolean in 1908. See his ODNB entry.
Edward C. Evans (unknown dates). Assistant keeper at the Ashmolean Museum, under J.H. Parker q.v. and Arthur Evans q.v. Part of his duties was to catalogue the Museum's collections (following the dispute between Parker and Rowell, qv). He prepared the so-called 2 'vellum volumes' for the objects transferred from the Ashmolean Museum to the PRM in 1886. His middle initial is given as the signature of a letter he wrote to the Oxford Times about the Museum artefacts he found in an outhouse of the Ashmolean, which caused a public furore. He also appears to have carried out excavations, some at Wheatley Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and undertaken administrative business for the Museum.
Charles ffoulkesCharles John ffoulkes (1868-1947). Educated at Radley College and Shrewsbury School, he matriculated in 1886 but left St John's College Oxford in Trinity Term, 1889 for unknown reasons without taking his degree. He then worked as an artist before becoming expert in arms and armour. In 1913 he was appointed curator of the Tower Armouries in which post he remained until 1935. In 1917 he became curator of the Imperial War Museum from whence he retired in 1933 when he became a trustee. In 1938 he moved to Oxford. See his ODNB entry
Cecil Mallaby Firth (1878-1931). He worked as a lawyer in Cyprus for a while before joining the Antiquities Service in Egypt. He became Inspector of Antiquities at Saqqara from 1913-1931 and carried out many excavations. See his wikipedia entry
Augustus Wollaston Franks (1826-1897) Collector and museum keeper at the British Museum. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He moved to London in 1849 and became very influential in the Archaeological Institute. In 1850 he was appointed to a new post in the British Museum to oversee the collection of British antiquities. In 1866 he became keeper of the newly created department of British and medieval antiquities and ethnography. See his ODNB entry.
William Blagdon Gamlen (1844-1919). Barrister and Secretary of the University of Oxford. In June 1868, after many scandals, the University decided to restructure its financial administration, appointing Curators of the University Chest, with a salaried Secretary (Gamlen was the second) and two clerks. He had been educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He served from 1873 until 1919 and was a partner in Morrell, Peel and Gamlen a local Oxford firm of solicitors who handled much of the University's legal work until 1998. [Taken from ‘History of the Chest: The 19th Century’ at http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/finance/history/19th.shtml] His gravestone (which confirmed his dates) is shown here.
Hereford Brooke George (1838-1910) New College history tutor from 1872 to 1891. The first editor of the Alpine Journal (the journal of the Alpine Club of London), which concerns itself with mountaineering. To find out more about his life see his ODNB entry.
Harold St George Gray (1872-1963) He worked as one of General Pitt-Rivers' assistants until 1899 when he moved to Oxford to become assistant to Henry Balfour at the Pitt Rivers Museum. In 1901 he moved to Taunton to become Curator of the Somerset County Museum and Secretary and Librarian of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society until 1949. [Taken from his Who was Who entry]
J.A. Harley 1998.266.3 [part]James Arthur Harley (1873-1943 or after 1950). He was one of the first three students to take the Diploma in Anthropology at the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1908 and a student at Jesus College. He was born in Antiqua and studied at Howard, Yale and Harvard Universities. He graduated from the latter in 1903 with a B.A. He was ordained in 1909 - 1910, and held curacies at Shepshed (Leicestershire) in 1909 - 1910, at Chislet (1910 - 1911) and Deal (1911 - 1912). He seems not to have continued in parochial work, but returned at some date to Shepshed; his address there is recorded in College address lists from 1937 to 1950; that of 1955 no longer includes his name. [Taken from a series of different sources including the register of diploma students, college records, local historians and the research of Matt Nicholas]
W.J. Hill (unknown dates) Superintendent of South Kensington Museum, he helped the transfer of the Pitt-Rivers collection from that museum to Oxford. He also spent a week in July 1886 helping with the arrangements. See here for more information.
A.M. HocartArthur Maurice Hocart (1883-1939). Born in Belgium but with a British passport, he attended school in Guernsey and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford in 1902. He graduated with honours in Greats in 1906 after which he studied psychology and phenomenology at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he accompanied W.H.R. Rivers on the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to the Solomon Islands. He then travelled to Fiji where he became the headmaster of Lakeba School in the Lau archipelago. He travelled around the islands carrying out ethnographic research. In 1912 Hocart received a graduate research scholarship from Oxford and conducted research on Rotuma, Wallis, Somoa and Tonga before returning to England in 1914. In 1914 he returned to Oxford to carry out postgraduate studies in anthropology but served in the First World War. He then took a series of posts in the British Empire including becoming Archaeological Commissioner in Sri Lanka. In 1925 he returned to England suffering from ill-health. He formally retired to England with a pension in 1929. In 1931 he served for 3 years as honorary lecturer in ethnology at University College, London. In 1934 he became Professor of Sociology at Cairo. See his ODNB entry, also see the wikipedia entry and Rob Welsch An American Anthropologist in Melanesia vol II p 82]
David George Hogarth (1862-1927). Educated at Winchester College, studied at Magdalen College, Oxford from 1881. After a year of uncertainty in 1886 he was elected to a fellowship at Magdalen and a Craven university fellowship. This allowed him to travel to Greece where he was admitted as a student at the British School of Athens in 1887. He travelled in the near East and carried out excavations in Cyprus. In 1894 he turned his attentions to Egypt. He became Director of the School of Athens in 1897-1900 and was most interested in excavating, in Crete with Arthur Evans [qv] and in Egypt. In November 1908 he succeeded Arthur Evans as Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, leaving it to serve in Cairo during the first world war. In 1927 he took leave from the Ashmolean as he was suffering from ill-health, and died shortly after. See his ODNB entry and Who was Who entry.
Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) Educated at Glasgow University who he graduated MD in 1839, after studying botany with his father from an early age. He served as assistant surgeon on HMS Erebus whilst it explored the southern oceans for four years after which he served on several other survey explorations and expeditions. His father, William, had been appointed first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, in 1855 Joseph was appointed assistant director to his father. In 1865 he succeeded to the post of director on the death of his father. See his ODNB entry for further information.
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Biologist and science educationalist. After an abortive apprenticeship with a doctor and later a mesmerist he enrolled at a private anatomy school in London and later trained at Charing Cross Hospital. In 1846 he joined the navy, serving on HMS Rattlesnake during its explorations between 1846 and 1850. In 1854 he took a teaching job in natural history and palaeontology at the School of Mines in London. In 1866 he was appointed to the Fullerian chair at the Royal Institution. In 1868 he was appointed principal of a new south London working mens' college and later taught at a laboratory at South Kensington. He frequently suffered from ill-health and poor finances both of which hampered his career though he gained the support of many influential scientists throughout his life work. He was appointed Inspector of fisheries between 1881 and 1885. In 1881 he was also appointed professor of biology and Dean of the Normal Schools of Science. See his ODNB entry for much more information
William Hatchett Jackson [1848-1924]. Entomologist. Sub-warden of Keble College. Appears to have taught in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. He may have served as a member of the University of Oxford Board of Natural Sciences. According to the Pall Mall Gazette of 28.11.1873 issue 2742 he was at New College [presumably Oxford] and was conferred a degree. In the Birmingham Daily Post of 1.5.1900 he is described as the 'Science Tutor of Keble College' and had just been appointed Radcliffe Librarian following Acland [qv]. [Information from undisclosed sources] He is the 892th most frequently named source for the Oxford English Dictionary.
George Kettle [dates unknown] Museum assistant from December 1909, during the first world war he served in the Royal Navy. There are two entries for George Kettle's in the 1901 census in Oxford, one was a 20 year old bootmaker, the other a 43 year old wine and spirit porter, either of them (or neither) could be this George Kettle. Both were born in Oxford [Information from Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Reports]
F.H.S. Knowles [part of 1998.271.11]Francis Howe Seymour Knowles (1886-1953) Fifth baronet. He studied law at Keble College, during which time he also studied the flight of the boomerang at the Pitt Rivers Museum with Henry Balfour, in 1908 he was one of the first students to take the Diploma of Anthropology. In 1909 he was appointed Arthur Thomson's [qv] assistant, to carry out teaching and research into physical anthropology. In 1912 he began fieldwork in the Iroquois Reserve, Ontario. From 1914 to 1919 he was physical anthropologist to the Canadian government. Unfortunately he contracted typhoid, had to leave his research, and returned to Oxford. Here he volunteered at the Pitt Rivers Museum for many years. He became a specialist in the 'methods used by ancient and modern Stone Age peoples in making their tools and weapons', including practical flint-knapping, although he also catalogued many other series of objects onto cards for Henry Balfour (among other tasks). [Based on the obituary by Blackwood [qv] and Penniman [qv] in Man, Sir Francis Knowles: 1886-1953’, Man, June 1953, n. 127, pp. 88-89.] See also this article about Knowles' work at the Pitt Rivers Museum
Edwin Ray Lankester (1847-1929) Educated at St Paul's School, he obtained a scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge but moved in 1866 to work under George Rolleston. In 1868 he gained a first class honours in natural sciences and was awarded several scholarships. He studied with Moseley [qv] in Vienna and Leipzig, and also at Jena and Naples. In 1872 he became fellow and tutor at Exeter College, where he began to agitate for the reform of scientific teaching. In 1875 Lankester became a fellow of the Royal Society and was appointed to the chair of zoology at University College, London. In 1882 he became regius professor of natural history at Edinburgh, but disliked the teaching and research there so resigned almost immediately. He was reappointed at University College, London and in 1891 became Linacre professor of comparative anatomy at Oxford. In 1898 he was appointed director of the natural history departments and keeper of zoology at the British Museum [later known as the Natural History Museum]. He retired in 1907. See his ODNB entry. Note that Lankester worked closely with Rolleston, Moseley and Huxley [qv]
Marmaduke Alexander Lawson (1840-1896) trained at University of Cambridge, appointed Sherardian Professor of Botany from 1868 to 1882 and Sibthorpian Professor of Rural Economy, University of Oxford. He moved to India as Director of Ootacamund Botanic Department in 1882. [Based on unsubstantiated web resources, and archival descriptions]
John Thomas Long (1863-1918) Henry Balfour's assistant between 1884 and 1898 at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Moved to the Anatomical Department of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in 1898. According to the OUMNH Annual Report 1918: 5 he died in 1918 after 30 years service as a Laboratory Assistant in the Department of Human Anatomy (which appears to be an over-estimate of the time he spent there). [Based on PRM and OUMNH annual reports] He must be the John Thomas Long aged 37, described as a museum assistant and watch-maker living in Oxford and listed in the 1901 Census. He seems to have lived in Albert Street, see here. [Based on Annual Reports &c]
R.R. Marett [part of 1998.271.11]Robert Ranulph Marett (1866-1943) Born and educated in Jersey, in 1884 he won a senior exhibition at Balliol College Oxford, and he arrived in 1885. In 1888 he obtained a degree in literae humaniores. He spent two years in Europe before returning to England. In 1891 he was appointed to a fellowship, and in 1893 he became sub-rector at Exeter College. He was invited at short notice to address the 1899 meeting of the anthropological section of the BAAS in Dover. Marett was involved in the introduction of the teaching of anthropology at Oxford. In 1907 he became the secretary to the committee for anthropology. In 1909 he helped found the Oxford University Anthropological Society. In 1910, when Tylor retired, he became reader in social anthropology. In 1928 he was elected rector of Exeter College. In 1936 he was due to retire, but both the Readership and Rector appointment were extended. In the 1930s his university post was extended to become acting professor of social anthropology until Radcliffe-Brown could start work. [Peter Rivière's entry for Marett in the ODNB]
Barbara Freire-Marreco 1998.266.3 [part]Barbara Whitchurch Freire-Marreco [later Aitken] (1879-1967) Barbara was a member of the first class of students to graduate from the Diploma of Anthropology in 1908 (she was awarded a distinction). She then worked in the museum as a volunteer, preparing a catalogue of the amulets. From 1909 to 1913 she held a research fellowship at Somerville College, where she studied 'the nature of authority of chiefs and kings in uncivilized society'. She also registered as a student at the London School of Economics where she was supervised by Professor Hobhouse. In May 1910 she travelled to the SW of the USA, working with Pueblo peoples. She had to return to the UK in 1912 when her funding ran out, but she returned in 1913. During war service in the first world war she met her husband, after the war they travelled extensively through Europe. From 1912 to 1929 she was the editor of Notes and Queries. [Based on an account written for the PRM by Claire Warrior] See more information here.
Mervyn Herbert Nevil Story Maskelyne (1823-1911) Studied mathematics at Wadham College Oxford before studying at the bar of the Inner Temple. In 1847 he abandoned law and returned to science, in 1850 he was invited to deliver lectures on mineralogy at Oxford and here he remained working in a laboratory underneath the then Ashmolean Museum (now Museum of the History of Science) until 1857. He was a strong advocate for the development of the natural sciences. In 1856 he was appointed Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford and in 1857 he accepted the newly created post of keeper of minerals at the British Museum; though he retained his professorship he moved to London. In 1879 he inherited an estate from his father and became an active landowner, resigning his position at the British Museum the next year though he retained his Oxford professorship. In 1880 he was elected a Liberal MP and he retained his seat until 1892. For further details see his ODNB entry.
Henry Nottidge Moseley [part of 1998.267.85]Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844-1891) Educated at Harrow school, he entered Exeter College in 1864. He worked with George Rolleston [qv] and in 1868 graduated with a first class degree from the natural sciences schools. Elected to the Radcliffe travelling fellowship in 1869, Moseley and Edwin Ray Lankester went to Vienna. On returning to England Moseley entered as a medical student at University College, London. In 1871 he went to study in Leipzig with Lankester. In 1871 he was invited to join an expedition on HMS Eclipse to Ceylon. In 1872 he was appointed one of the naturalists on the scientific staff of HMS Challenger, and went round the world in four years. Returning to the UK in 1876 he was elected to a fellowship at Exeter College and spent several years writing up the expedition results. In the summer of 1877 he travelled to California and Oregon. In 1879 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and also appointed assistant registrar to the University of London, a post he held until 1881 when he succeeded his friend and teacher, Rolleston, in the Linacre professorship of human and comparative anatomy at Oxford. He advocated the donation of Pitt-Rivers first collection to Oxford and became responsible for it, overseeing its transfer with Tylor and appointing Balfour (one of his students) as an assistant to oversee its installation. In 1887 his health gave way and he was unable to work, and he later died. His friend Lankester [qv] became Linacre professor after his death, and Balfour took over responsibilities for the Pitt Rivers Museum. See his ODNB entry.
Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900) Sanskritist and philologist. Born in Germany and studied at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin. From 1845 he lived in Paris for over a year, in 1846 he travelled to London intending a short visit, in May 1848 he decided to settle in Oxford in order to see his edition of Rig Veda through the University Press. In 1851 he was appointed deputy Taylorian professor of modern European languages, in 1854 he succeeded to the full Professorship. He became a member of Christ Church college and later a fellow of All Souls and in 1855 he became a naturalized British citizen. In 1860 he failed to be elected to the post of professor of Sanskrit, a post which went to Monier Williams. In 1868 a new chair of comparative philology was created, specifically for him, he held this chair until his death. For further information see his ODNB entry.
John Linton Myres (1869-1954) Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford where he took first classes in honours moderations (1890) and literae humaniores (1892). He was a fellow of Magdalen College from 1892-1895 and he travelled widely in Greece and Cyprus during this time. He was a student of Christ Church (1895-1907) and university lecturer in classical archaeology. In 1907 he went to Liverpool University as professor of Greek and lecturer in ancient geography. In 1910 he returned to Oxford as the newly created Wykeham professor of ancient history. He held this post until his retirement in 1939. He was not only an antiquarian, hellenist and archaeologist, but also was interested in anthropology, editing Man from 1901-3 and 1931-46. He was librarian of New College until 1946. See his ODNB entry and more information here.
John Henry Parker (1806-1884) Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1870-1884 when he was succeeded by Arthur Evans. See his ODNB entry.
T.K. Penniman [part of 1998.267.86]Thomas Kenneth Penniman (1895-1977) Born in Vermont, USA, after serving in the first world war he came to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar in 1919 reading Greats. He worked for Sir James Frazer and studied for the Diploma in Anthropology between ... In 1928-29 he was a member of the Oxford-Field Museum Expedition to Kish in Mesopotamia (Iraq). After working for a time in the department of human anatomy with Thomson [qv] and at the Institute of Social Anthropology in 1939 he was appointed Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum to replace Henry Balfour [qv]. He retired in 1963, when he was conferred the title of Curator Emeritus and later suffered from ill-health, dying in hospital in Northampton. [Based on his obituaries in The Times]. See also here.
John Phillips (1800-1874) In 1825 he became the Keeper of York Museum and a successful lecturer in Geology. In 1834 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society and in the same year became Professor of Geology at King's College, London. He resigned this chair in 1839 and his York keepership a year later. In 1843 he was appointed to the new chair of geology and mineralogy at Trinity College, Dublin, but he resigned this post in 1845. In 1853 he was appointed deputy reader in geology at Oxford. In 1856 he was made reader and in 1860 professor. He was also keeper of the Ashmolean Museum from 1854-1870 and from 1857 until his death he was keeper of the new University Museum (of Natural History) at Oxford. See his ODNB entry.
Edward Bagnall Poulton (1856-1943) Zoologist, demonstrator in comparative anatomy under George Rolleston. Hope professor of zoology at the University of Oxford from 1893. See his ODNB entry.
Bartholomew 'Bat' Price (1818-1898) he was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford from 1837 to 1840, gaining an MA in 1843. In 1842 he gained the senior university mathematical scholarship, and two years later was elected a fellow of Pembroke, taking holy orders. In 1845 he became tutor and mathematical lecturer, and in 1847–8 and 1853–5 was a public examiner. He continued to take a large number of private pupils, including C.L. Dodgson, who became a lifelong friend. In 1858 he was a university proctor. In 1853 he was appointed Sedleian professor of natural philosophy at Oxford, a post he retained until 1898. In 1868 he became secretary to the delegates of the Oxford University Press. See his ODNB entry
A.H.L.F. Pitt-RiversAugustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900) For information about him see his Biography, created as part of the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers project and his ODNB entry. For his papers (and transcriptions thereof) see here. Find out much more information about him from the Rethinking Pitt-Rivers website.
Charles Robertson (dates unknown). Acland's assistant at the OUMNH.
Alfred Robinson (1863-1938) Robinson worked for the OUMNH for twenty-five years, but in the early days of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, when the division of the two museums was not clear, Robinson worked a good deal with the Pitt Rivers collections, working for Moseley and Balfour [qv]. He cleaned and repaired / restored many objects. He also photographed them, and other scientific objects for publications and for lantern slides. Under Tylor as Keeper, he carried out general administrative work paying wages, keeping accounts and correspondence and other 'duties of a secretarial nature'. He also made drawings for lectures of specimens within the OUMNH and PRM and also for Arthur Evans. [Based on an account written by Robinson and held in the OUMNH archives, thanks to Megan Price for identifying this source]
George Rolleston (1829-1881) Educated at Gainsborough and Sheffield and won an open scholarship to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1846. He obtained a first class degree in Classics in 1850 and was elected to the Sheppard fellowship in law and physic which he held until 1862. In 1851 he entered St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, to study medicine. He qualified MB in 1854 and served in the Crimea War in 1855. In 1857 he was assistant physician at the Hospital for Sick Children, London but in the same year he returned to Oxford to be elected physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary and Lee's reader in anatomy, succeeding Acland [qv]. He was involved in the strengthening of the teaching of natural sciences, and the development of the University Museum. In 1860 Rolleston was chosen as the first Linacre professor of anatomy and physiology and he held this post until his death in 1881. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1862 and a fellow of Merton College in 1872. He was a strong believer in the need for sanitation and alcohol abstinence. He was also interested in animal and human remains found in archaeological excavations, working with Pitt-Rivers and Canon Greenwell amongst others. According to Henry Acland [qv] for Rolleston, '... Man was the crown of the whole. But Man in his material origin and descent; Man in his evolution, social, moral, and intellectual; Man of every time, character, aspiration; Man in his highest relations to his fellow men, and to God.' [quoted in Nowak-Kemp and Galanakis, 2011:100] See his ODNB entry and his obituary notice in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. See here for Rolleston related resources etc.
George Augustus Rowell (1804-1892) Assistant keeper at the Ashmolean Museum under the Duncans, Phillips and Parker (by his own account) for over forty years, resigning in 1880. He also worked (in the winter months) at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History from 1860. See here for his ODNB entry. A better account of his life is available here.
Archibald Henry Sayce (1846-1933) Orientalist, Assyriologist and philologist. In 1865 he went to Queen's College Oxford where he studied with Friedrich Max Müller [qv] and John Rhys [see People Database]. His eyesight and general health were always poor. In 1869 he was elected a fellow and classical lecturer at his college. In 1870 he became a college tutor and was ordained. In 1876 he became deputy professor in comparative philology. In 1890 he resigned most of his posts retaining only his college fellowship and moved to Egypt, helping to found the Alexandria Museum in Cairo. See his ODNB entry
Melville William Hilton-Simpson (1881-1938) Educated at Exeter College, Oxford gaining a B.Sc. Between 1903 and 1906 he travelled in the 'Barbary States' and the Sahara, and accompanied Emil Torday on his expedition to the Kasai Basin in then Belgian Congo to collect ethnographic objects for the British Museum. In Michaelmas Term 1911 he registered for the Diploma in Anthropology at Oxford, and in November 1913 was 'granted status of research-student carrying out scientific work under the auspices of the Committee for Anthropology'. From 1912 with his wife he carried out prolonged ethnographic fieldwork among the Berber in southern Algeria. He served in the British Army in the first world war retiring with the rank of captain. [Taken from his Who was Who entry and the Diploma register]
Walter Baldwin Spencer [part of 1998.267.85]Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) Born in Lancashire and educated at Manchester Art School, Owens College Manchester and lastly Exeter College Oxford from 1881. He started to study medicine but diverting to studying natural sciences where he worked with H.N. Moseley [qv]. He also attended Tylor's lectures [qv]. He graduated in 1884 and was appointed demonstrator in Moseley's laboratory where he carried out research into the pineal eye of reptiles. In 1885 he assisted Tylor and Moseley in transferring the Pitt-Rivers collection to Oxford. He was elected a fellow of Lincoln College in 1886. In 1887 Spencer moved to Melbourne, Australia where he became the foundation professor of biology at the university. He remained in this post until his retirement in 1919 but he is better known for his anthropological work in central Australia with his partner Francis James Gillen. He died in Tierra del Fuego on a fieldtrip. See his ODNB entry but see also his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. See here for some of his papers from the Pitt Rivers Museum's manuscript collection.
Ernest Seymour Thomas (1876-1936). Born in Lindula, Sri Lanka, where his father was a plantation owner. He grew up in Wales, living with his uncle. He attended the Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield and studied at Keble College Oxford from 1895 (where his address is given as the Pitt Rivers Museum in the register of alumni and his profession given as Egyptian Civil Service). In 1901 he was a schoolmaster in Pembrokeshire but by 1906 he was living in Cairo. He began working at the Pitt Rivers Museum sometime during 1924-5 as an assistant to Henry Balfour [qv]. He died on 9 June 1936 at Acland Nursing Home on Banbury Road, Oxford from typhoid fever and peritonitis. He was still an employee of the Museum at the time.
Arthur Thomson (1858-1935) Born in Edinburgh and studied medicine at Edinburgh University, later becoming a demonstrator of anatomy there. In 1885 he was appointed to the new post of university lecturer in human anatomy at Oxford. From 1893 he held the title of extraordinary professor of human anatomy and in 1919 became the first Dr Lee's professor. He taught the physical anthropological side of the Diploma in Anthropology. He was a very keen painter and became a professor of the Royal Academy from 1900. He retired in 1933. See his ODNB entry
Arthur Thompson [part of 1998.271.11]Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) see separate report, Part I and Part 2. See also his ODNB entry.
John Obidiah Westwood (1805-1893) Hope Professor of Zoology. Born a Quaker he was first apprenticed as an engraver but by 1821 he was articled to a firm of solicitors in London though he was always very interested in entomology to which he later devoted his attention. He first met the entomologist Frederick William Hope in 1824, and in 1934 Hope engaged Westwood to work on his collection one day a week. About 1849 Hope decided to give his collection to Oxford University, and it was accepted in 1850, he was also keen to establish a new chair of zoology at Oxford and in 1860 the Hope professorship of zoology was endowed. In 1857 Westwood was appointed conservator of Hope's collections at Oxford and in 1861 he was nominated by Hope and appointed to be the first Hope professor of zoology. He was elected a fellow of Magdalen College in 1858. As well as entomology he was a very active antiquarian. See his ODNB entry.
