Rolleston papers, Ashmolean Museum:
Transcription of documents which relate to the development of museum anthropology at Oxford:
GR/A/1 Rolleston correspondence A-F
Antrim
[On envelop: Correspondence between Lord Antrim & Dr Rolleston 1880-1886 / And one letter from O. Davies to E.T. Leeds]
[Presumably William Randal McDonnell, 6th Earl of Antrim (1851–1918) who was at Christ Church in 1871, and succeeded to the title in 1869]
[See 1969.34.555-557, 1980.30.1-3, these items were transferred to Ashmolean in 1886 and then to us in 1969, presumably the remaining objects from Antrim are still at Ashmolean Museum. ]
Sept 5th [1880?]
Glenarm Castle
Co. Antrim
Ireland
My dear Dr Rolleston
I daresay you have forgotten me, but you used to be very kind to me when I was at Oxford and allow me to come and see your different collections in the Museum. I have a good collection of flint and stone weapons and also a small but varied collection of bronze weapons and ornaments. I have given up collecting now for some time as I found I only got the same types over and over again, my collection being things found merely in this neighbourhood. I wish to give this collection away and as I hate Irishmen and all things connected with them I would rather it did not go to any Irish museum. For the sake of our old friendship I will give it to the Oxford museum, if you will accept it, and keep it together, as a local collection from the north of Ireland; I don’t want it labelled with my name or indeed to have my name mentioned at all in the affair. I give you the collection for your museum. If you want to see it I shall be before settling whether you will take it, I should be very glad to see you here any time you like to come.
I am
Yours sincerely
Antrim
To Lord Antrim
Anatomical Department
Museum,
Oxford
By “keeping the Collection together” to quote your words I should understand keeping it under the same roof and with the same labels upon every specimen [insert] kept [end insert]
Sept 12th
Glenarm Castle,
Co. Antrim,
N. Ireland
Dear Dr Rolleston
By “keeping the collection together”, I mean preserving the fact that it is a collection entirely got together in the counties of Antrim Derry and Tyrone. I mean that the arrowheads [insert] (for an article) [end insert] should not be separated and those of one type put with Scandinavian and French arrowheads of a similar type so that future generations will not know that these came from Ireland. From what you say in your letter I perceive you would preserve the identity of the collection as a local one from North Ireland.
I will pack them and send them you as I have time as there are a great many things I would have no objection to your swapping duplicates for other things from other collections.
When I come to England I should much like to run down to Oxford and see you.
Yrs very sincerely
Antrim
Glenarm Castle Oct 3rd
My dear Dr Rolleston
I shall by tomorrow have sent you 20 boxes, the last [insert] 1/2 dox [end insert] being large and heavy I have sent by luggage train. I shall be over in England in Dec. and will run down to Oxford and give you what information I possess about the collection, as to the localities they were found in etc. I have a few drift implements and English scrapers from Brandon given me by Mr Flower when we paid him a visit some 9 or 10 years ago. Will you take them also? I would not part with them, but that I am going to become an absentee, chiefly on account of the new ground game bill, and I cannot wander about the face of the earth accompanied by a collection. As you were the man who introduced me to Mr Flower I am sure he would not have though I was slighting is gifts in making them over to you. I will send off in a day or two a small box of scrapers and celts which I have just discovered laid by in a drawer. I have several celts hammer stones etc which I believe to be partly and wholly forgeries, shall I send them you or pitch them into the river, they would about fill a small box. Mr Franks has got a lump of bronze and a mould for casting pins, I left them with him some 3 years ago and never went to get them back, but as he is a friend of yours I know, if you would ask him for them when you next see him I daresay he will remember about them. H. [?] Paget who is staying with me will bring you a bronze sword when he returns to Oxford but he cannot wait till then to assure you of his kind feelings towards you so wishes me to convey them in this letter.
Yrs very sincerely
Antrim
Oct 18th
Glenarm
Dear Dr Rolleston
I have nothing now to send you but a few forgeries, as I believe them to be, either entirely or partly; also some flat polished stones whose use I cannot conjecture nor yet whether they are ancient or modern. If you would like any more flakes I could send you a bushel or so of good ones and some scrapers like the enclosed which I picked up in a field about 500 feet above the sea on a basalt soil on Saturday last. This is the best time of year for finding flakes as the potato fields are cleared and the soil clean and loose and the flakes are lying about; I could easily take a day and in a doz. potato fields I know, I could gather a great many and would be sure to find scrapers also. Write and let me know if I shall do this
Yrs very sincerely
Antrim
[torn off bottom? of mourning letter paper]
No 9 For corresponding entry in list see stuck in M.S. Addition book No 1732 1886
30 chipped celts
57 smooth celts
[torn off top? of mourning letter paper]
No 4. For corresponding entry in list see stuck in M.S. Addition book No 1732 1886
Scrapers – worked & unworked flakes from Clogh Co. Antrim
Antrim
It appears impossible to recognize which there are with [illegible] they are separately marked as they appear to have been mixed whensent from the Parks Museum
[?possibly note when sent from OUMNH to Ashmolean in 1886?]
[Another scrap of paper]
From Earl of Antrim
1880 Sep 20th 3 Boxes
.. 21st 1 do [Box]
.. 25th 2 do [Boxes]
.. 28th 2 do [Boxes]
.. Oct 5th 1 do [Box]
.. 8th 5 do [Boxes]
.. 9th 4 do [Boxes] ]
.. 13th 1 do [Box]
Total 19
J. Hoxton [or Horton]
4//11/80
[Then set of transcriptions of above correspondence in Rolleston’s handwriting [no additional letters]]
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Bagshaw
Foolow near Bakewell [insert] Eyam [end insert]
15 May 1863
Dr Rolleston
Dear Sir
You will [insert] no [end insert] doubt feel surprised at having received no account of my discoveries. it was not published in the last number of the “Reliquary” & now it is published it looks such an extremely small piece that I thought it would be as well to send you a copy. Mr Heworth has made no engravings with the exception of the “Drinking cup”. Nothing more has been done at the barrow on Eyam Edge I was looking at it some days ago & found a small chipping of flint, & yet it would be very hazardous to say wither [sic] it was a barrow or not.
I have not made any further exploration having been rather busy all spring but hope to make some interesting discoveries in the course of the summer when I will let you know the results.
Can I trouble you to describe the characteristics of the cranium we found nr Grindlo... as it will be extremely interesting to me & a few friends at Eyam.
The Reliquary is a quarterley publication price 2/6 the Editor is Mr Jewith of the Wardwick Derby. it is a very interesting little book although it is mostly local information there is will in this quarters made by a person who had the plaque in the house. When it raged at Eyam with such violence in 1666 nearly all the persons mentioned in it died of that direful malady
I remain
Yrs [illegible]
... Bagshaw ...
------
[2 letters from Edward Churton in 1870 who appears to be clergyman about whether Anglo-Saxons were given holy services in AS or in Latin]
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Rolleston dealt with William Cutter of Russell Street, Bloomsbury (as did Pitt-Rivers and presumably most ethnographic and physical anthropology collectors]. Letter dated November 1873 refers to Cutter sending ‘2 skulls of Bogota Indians’ so he was presumably selling him human remains but a letter dated May 7 1877 also offers natural history specimens
---------
J.A. Dale
[undated]
Dear Dr Rolleston
We must indeed first restore the spear heads to Mrs Bunny as the first step towards inducing her to present them to the Museum. When I requested her to entrust them to me, in order that you and Professor Phillips might examine them & ascertain their nationality, she at once consented, having implicit confidence that they would be returned in due time.
I, as well as you, would like to see them placed in your splendid collection at the Museum where they would teach thousands of University men & visitors what sort of weapons the ancient Britons used. I do not think it at all unlikely that Mrs Bunny may present them eventually to the place where her son was educated & of which she has pleasant associations from visits in Commemoration time.
But the way to gain your object is to send her a copy of the memoir which you kindly agreed to write on the spear heads for the Newbury Field Club, and to send with it a letter giving her some ideas of the antiquities which you have added to the Museum, and hinting at the valuable addition which it is in her power to make.
Even if she does not take your hint (which I do not in the least expect) the spear heads will before long become the property of her son, as she is past 70. You can then make a fresh attempt to secure them.
I wish to place the spear heads in Professor Phillips hands before returning them and I should like to show him the volume of the Newbury Field Club if you have finished it.
Anticipating much pleasure from your evening lecture.
I remain
Yours very truly
J.A. Dale
[a follow up letter still talking about arrangements to get spearheads to Prof Phillips, is dated 28th October but no year]
[John Ainsworth Dale, obviously was involved in examining physics at Oxford, can’t find out more about him, it is possible he is related to Langham Dale who donated stone tools via OUMNH?]
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D’Urban [of Royal Albert Memorial Museum Exeter]
Holcombe
Dawlish
26th August 1877
My dear Professor Rolleston
Thank you very much for your kind letter which I have had no time to reply to before now. I am here for a short holiday and when I return I will send up some of the parasites from the Lumpfish and shall be very glad if you will be so kind as to determine them for me.
With regard to Plectognathi not inhabiting freshwater I think that there is a small Tetrodon found in the rivers of Demerara but I don’t know if it ascends beyond the reach of salt water
Col. Lane Fox went out to Broom Gravel Pitt but did not obtain any implements with the exception of a flake of chert which had certainly been worked.
Believe me
truly yrs
W.S.M. D’Urban
[Pitt-Rivers item possibly 1884.122.141]
Devon & Exeter
Albert Memorial Museum
and Free Library
Exeter 17th September 1877
My dear Professor Rolleston,
I am very much obliged to you for so kindly and promptly determining the Epizoosis for me.
I have just furnished Dr Evans with a fine series of the Palaeolithic Chert Implements from Broom so that my stock of duplicates is rather low & I am promised three deep; but I am almost daily getting fresh ones brought to me and will do my best to send you a good specimen I have had eographs of 36 specimens taken on three different plates. I have had a quantity printed off so that the cost has been considerable. I can furnish you or any one wishing to have them with copies at 2/6 each. The specimens are reduced to 1/3 the original size. In the Photographs are several very fine specimens I have obtained since you were in Exeter
I should like to have English or Irish Arrow-heads; Bronze Celts, Palstaves, or anything in bronze from anywhere if undoubtedly genuine, good skulls or stuffed specimens of [insert] foreign [end insert] mammals, or skeleton of small species; specimens of intestinal worms in spirits; bone implements, Pottery (Greek, Roman, or Celtic) &c. I think I can send you some flint flakes from the “Kitchen Midden” in the submerged forest bed at [illegible Nutham?] N. Devon if you care to have them.
I beg to congratulate you on the addition to your family & trust that both Mother & Child are doing well
Yours very truly
W.S.M. D’Urban
Devon & Exeter
Albert Memorial Museum
and Free Library
Exeter 9th October 1877
My dear Sir,
I have sent you by Gt Western Railway a small box containing four of the Palaeolithic Chert Implements from Broom Ballast Pit, in the Parish of Hawkchurch near Axminster. They are fairly illustrative specimens. I also send a set of the Photographs, I mentioned to you in my last, for your acceptance thinking that they will be useful to you in shewing the principal points of the Implements found at Broom. I shall be glad of specimens of any good things we have not got, in exchange I hope Mrs Rolleston and her child are doing well
Believe me
truly yrs
W.S.M. D’Urban
Curator
[Postcard]
Professor Rolleston
University Museum
Oxford
Albert Memorial Museum
Exeter
30th October 1877
Dear Sir,
I hope you have received the Palaeolithic Implements & Photographs I sent you per Gr.W. Railway about 3 weeks since
Yrs faithfully
WSM D’Urban
Curator
[One of these 4 tools is the first thing listed in the transfer of 1886, see 1887.1.1, there are many be others which don’t mention the link to RAMM though I can’t identify them from database as no other objects are listed from Broom from OUMNH]
Devon & Exeter
Albert Memorial Museum
and Free Library
Exeter 22nd January 1878
My dear Professor Rolleston,
I shall be glad of any nice mammals or Bird skins from New Guinea which you can spare especially the former as we are badly off in that Class.
I intended the Photographs as a present from myself to you and the Museum will not be any wiser Their money value is not very great.
Since you were in Exeter I have obtained some fine bronze weapons of Romano-British period from a camp near Tiverton They were found in 1836.
I have also received a pretty good skull of Hippopotamus (female) from East Africa and a lot of skulls (not in good condition) of Mammals from Ceylon including a large Elephant’s skull missing the tusks. What do you think about the Ceylon Wild Boar? Is it distinct from the Indian species? If so what should it be called? The late Dr Gray of the British Museum differs very widely from all other authors in his arrangement of the sui d.. [illegible] He only very slightly alludes to the Ceylon species or variety
Believe me
truly yrs
W.S.M. D’Urban
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Eichwald
Peterburgh 13 Nov
1870
Dear Sir,
I thank you very much for the flint implements you sent me, of which many are very interesting to me, the more so as similar flint instruments from the drift of England are represented by Mr Lubbock in his Prehistorical Times [sic], as the spearheads, arrowheads, the spindle-whorl. That implement is very much like the spindle-whorl from Robenhausen, re presented by Lubbock.
Equally remarkable are the flint knives of England, they are quite similar to those, that are found in South France and described by Mr. Lartet. I would like to know next time, when you will have the kindness to write to me, if these were found, together with those flint implements, mammouth [sic] and rhinoceros bones, as you say of other antiquities in your work: rechearched [sic] and excavations near Abingdon from which I repeat to you my best thanks.
I have written to some of my friends in several cities of European and Asiatic Russia, they might send me sculls [sic] of the peoples of Siberia and the Caucasus, you wished to have, but till now I have received none, because it is very difficult, to have these sculls, as these peoples bury their dead themselves. [sic] The sceleton [sic] of the bison will be sent to you next year at the opening of navigation.
Please to answer a question more: if in your drift with the flint-implements are also to be found others in bronze and to what people you ascribe them?
Believe me to be with every consideration
Yours truly
Edw.d I Eichwald
[List of 4 crania in latin by Eduardus Eichwald dated 1871]
Note of objects of Antiquarian Interest sent to Professor Eichwald by Professor Rolleston March 22 1872
One British Cremation Urn with the burnt bones it contained found at Yarnton, near Oxford. Sept 1871 in digging gravel for a Railway
One Irish Celt Co. Kildare
Two Irish Celts ? with loops
One axehead Irish
Eight flints, flakes and scrapers
Cow’s metacarpus manufactured for grinding pins
St Petersburgh
September 14th 1874
My dear Sir,
I beg your pardon for not having answered your letter some time back, I got it during my illness, which lasted the whole summer and only now I am able to thank you for the Anglo-Saxon urn you got for me, it has arrived quite safely and is of very great interest for to me. I will try to get you meanwhile the skulls you wish to have and would thank [insert] you [end insert] very much if you would send me some objects of the remotest period possible.
I regret infinitely the death of Professor Philipps, whom I know personally and I am obliged to you for the notice of him.
Please to believe me, dear Sir,
Yours truly
Edward Eichwald
P.S.
Cannot you tell me why Max Muller does not agree with the known Schliemann concerning his Troyan antiquities? They are, as I believe, of a very remote period, I think even pelasgian
[This is presumably Karl Eduard von Eichwald (1795-1876) of Saint Petersburg, Russian geologist and physician. Professor of Zoology, mineralogy and medicine in St P. from 1838 and later professor of palaeontology. See wikipedia entry for him]
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[Set of correspondence from John Wickham Flower, who sent bones to Rolleston for identification]
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[Set of correspondence from M. Foster of Sancton [East Riding of Yorkshire] sending archaeological objects and human remains to Rolleston, these do not appear to have been accessioned at PRM, Rolleston supports continuing relationship sending books etc]
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GR/A/1 Rolleston correspondence G-M
W. Wyatt Gill
19 Lewis Grove
Lewisham
July 2nd 1874
My dear Doctor Rolleston,
Upon my return from Brighton I got a rough box made for the axe I promised you. It is now packed and directed to you. I have put with the axe a few seeds from New Guinea and a woman’s petticoat from the Loyalty Islands. The husbands were utterly nude, until I taught them propriety.
May I ask the names of the gentlemen I met at Merton College (I think) – it will be a pleasing remembrance for after years? Of course I know who Max Muller is; & yourself too. But the others? With kind remembrances to Mrs Rolleston, I remain,
My dear Professor,
Yours faithfully
W. Wyatt Gill
Dr Rolleston.
The only garment of a woman of Lifu, Loyalty Group, in their heathen state. Made of the bark of the banyan. Of course, this petticoat was wound round and round the person. And yet we & our teachers who taught such a people decency have been expelled by the French at the point of the bayonet
A carved axe from Mangaia, Hervey Group. The stone-head is ancient, & has often been used in cutting down timber. It is used laterally; not perpendicularly as we should use a steel one. The c... itself was once an object of worship. The wood (bestoria laurifolia)[?] is the mystical tree of death, around which so much superstition clusters. The branches of this tree are the supposed road to Hades. Its sweet-scented flowers irrestibly [sic] attract unhappy spirits to their fate (as bees cluster to blossoms).
[1887.1.500-502, axe 1887.1.708]
Wednesday afternoon
July 9th / 74
My dear Doctor,
Thanks for your kind note & your answer to my queries. Of course I am pleased that you appreciate the axe. I was fearful but the carving might be injured by the cover fitting too closely.
The fringe you inquire about is made from the bark of the Polynesian banyan, stained. it is (or rather was) the only dress of a woman of Lifu, wound round her person many times. To their heathen minds, this constituted a suitable and creditable garment. Exactly the same was used on the neighbouring island of Uvia, Commodore Erskine in the voyage of the Havannah has a capital picture of an Uvia woman thus arrayed. I wrote what the article was on a loose sheet of note paper & put it in the box. Hence the absence of remark in my note to you.
On my return home from Oxford, I saw a poor work-man pulled out of danger by two fellow workmen. He was paralysed with horror at the sight of the advancing train & must have been destroyed but for the timely assistance rendered him. In my monomania I saw in this an emblem of the work of the Xn [ie Christian] church in trying to save the weak, the fallen, & the heathen; - a strong hand must be put upon them to pluck them out of danger.
I remain, My dear Sir
Yours very truly
W. Wyatt Gill
G. Rolleston Esq M.D.
------
B.F. Hartshorne
Panwila
February 3 1872
Dear Sir
Mr Lewis has told me of the interest you take in the Veddahs, and has also given me some valuable hints which you have supplied as a basis of further inquiry regarding them, I expect to see some more Veddahs next week and I will attend to these matters. In some respects I have anticipated your suggestions, and as I have a lock of the hair of one of them I send it, in case you may like to have it.
It was cut by me from the head of a man called Appawy about a month ago. He was more shock-headed than 4 others who were with him, and his hair, being the same length all round, quite obscured his eyes, but was not long enough to reach below that part of his face.
Believe me to be
Yrs very truly
B.F. Hartshorne
[this letter is presumably to Moseley, it is not clear why Hartshorne changes his spelling and pronunciation of Vedda in the next letter]
My address is merely “Civil Service Ceylon”
Panwila
Ceylon
February 20 1872
Dear Sir
Mr Moseley has told me that you take a great interest in the Weddo [sic] of Ceylon and that he has sent to you some hair which I forwarded to him. I trust that this and the fact of my being a Pembroke man may be a sufficient excuse for me writing to you. Part of my district here borders the country of the Weddo in whom I take much interest. I have seen a good deal of them, and collected much very interesting information about them since Mr Moseley left Ceylon I have seen five more Weddo and I have cut some more hair which I forward to you. It was cut close to the head and is as long as the hair of the Weddo ever grows – I have collected more than 200 of their words which generally resemble Sinhalese very closely. There are, however, some words which are entirely distinct. I propose writing a paper upon their language and customs and appearance &c of which I hope you will allow me to send you a copy. I have had a few photographs taken; and they are tolerably successful. I believe that I shall be able to get some skulls of the Jungle Weddo, and, if they are of sufficient value, I should be glad to present them to the Museum together with an axe and bow and arrows which I have got. In this case would it be convenient to you if I forwarded them through you. I have also taken steps to procure as many bones of the Jungle Weddo as possible. The village or Gan Weddo are virtually a distinct race as they have married with Sinhalese & have Sinhalese names and cultivate fields I am quite sure that the specimens of bones & skulls which I may get will be, at all events, authentic. There is only one man who can get them & I have employed him. He has frequently buried Jungle Weddo as he is a sort of Headman charged with looking after them & he would find it impossible to get any other skulls, for no one else but these Weddo live anywhere near him. If there are any points you wish for information I hope that you will let me hear and I shall have great pleasure in making the necessary inquiry. I forward the hair of two of them.
Believe me to be
very truly yours
Bertram F. Hartshorne
[Hair samples: 1887.1.246-250]
Another letter dated April 29 1872 from Hartshorne in Colombo refers to sending skulls to Rolleston but also says:
‘... I also send in some arrack some Lice of the Weddo, as well as some from Singhalese and Tamils. I saw them captured myself. I also send some of the bark &c which the Weddo chew and eat. I selected this from their wallets. ... I have not yet worked up my material about the Weddo into a paper as I have been in the south of the Island for an exchange of duties ... If you thought it sufficiently interesting & well enough put together I should think it a great compliment if it [insert] this paper [end insert] were allowed to be read before the Anthropological Institute; and if I might do so, I would gladly forward it to you to be dealt with as you might think best.
The bows and arrows are still in Ceylon. I shall send a big box home very shortly and will take care to send them [insert] therein [end insert] to the Museum addressed to you. ... If anything should occur to you which it would be desirable to investigate I should be most glad to turn attention to it. I have had some Photo: of the Weddo taken but they are not very successful. I wish I could get you a whole skeleton. I shall try and do so. ... I think the Jungle Weddo are safe from civilization at present. They have kept clear of it for more than 2000 years and have a cordial hatred of anything of the kind. But the real Jungle Weddo are very few in number. I very much doubt whether there are more than 100 if so many. They are popularly and wrongly called “Veddahs”. The singular is “Wedda” & pl. “Weddo”. The word means “an archer” or one who shoots with any sort of weapon from the Singhalese word ... widi ...
[The bow and arrows were not previously accessioned in the PRM, however only a week after this letter was transcribed a member of the PRM collections management staff found one of the arrows as part of an arrow locating project, and it is now accessioned. AP September 2012. It is likely that the bow and other arrows will eventually be located in the PRM. Hartshorne's Sri Lankan skull is referred to by Rolleston here]
Ceylon
June 24
My dear Sir
I hope that you have received the box which I sent home to you by this time. I have already packed a very large box which contains amongst other things two bows and some arrows and an axe of the Weddo. These will be forwarded to you for the Museum and I hope they will arrive safely. ... You mentioned something about depaying [sic] expenses concerning the Wedda collection from the fund allowed for the purposes of the Museum. I had no intention of doing otherwise than presenting such things as I could collect to the Museum. I see however that a sum of money has been [insert] lately [end insert] voted for additions to t he museum collections, and if the delegates thought my contributions of any value I should not object to receive some grant which I could devote to the purposes of further inquiry regarding them and the Rodiyas but chiefly concerning the latter whom I find very interesting. ... The box with the bows and arrows is waiting for a canal steamer. I shall let you know when it goes. I shall be glad to get anything I can in Ceylon for you, and if I hear correctly that you wish for a flying fox I think that I should not have much difficulty in getting one. ...
[The axe is 1887.1.245]
I have sent to you the axe wh. Bandiy (the shorter of the three Weddo) is holding in the photo:
Passelawa
Ceylon
July 6 1872
My dear Sir,
I enclose fourteen photo: of the Weddo which are tolerably satisfactory in view of the difficulty with which they were taken, on a bad day with a scarcity of chemicals. I hope you will find them of some interest. If they are good enough I should like them to go to the Museum and if you would care for them could send you another set of yourself or for any purpose for which you might like to have them. I have mentioned them to Mr Moseley and I should like him to see them. They are the only real Weddo who have ever been photographed, and, at present, this is the only set which has been printed from the plates. There was a difficulty with getting them printed or I should have sent them before. If they are clear enough for printing [insert] engraving or lithography [end insert] perhaps one or two might be engraved for the Anthropological Institute’s Journal if my paper was read for that society. But I should like to leave this matter at your wish and discretion, and you would know which photo: were the most interesting. You will perhaps notice the pointed elbows and the short thumbs. The Wedda with a cloth round his head put it on merely because he had a headache from the cold, and I gave him the cloth for that purpose. He is called Kôwy and is a kind of head man among them. I got much information from him; but his extraordinary want of intelligence was beyond all description. The most crass of the Beotians would have been considered [Greek text] in comparison with him. The good looking Wedda is named Latty. I sent you some of his hair. The other shock headed little man is [illegible word crossed out] [insert] Bandiy [end insert] I sent you some of his hair. His height is 4 ft 11 3/4 in. Kowy is 5 ft 4 3/8 in. and Latty is 5 ft 4 1/4 in. I will send photo: of the Jarasites magnified as soon as I can get them. [talks about acquiring natural history specimens] ... The box containing the bows and arrows and the axe is still lying at Colombo waiting for a canal steamer. It is difficult to load ships at Colombo during the S.W. monsoon, therefore, very few vessels take in cargo there at this season.
Nuwara Eliya
Ceylon
September 1 1872
My dear Sir
I must thank you very much for your last two letters. The latter contained a bill of exchange for 51 rupees odd which will fully repay all expenses of carriage &c and everything connected with the box which I sent. The former came with a very useful and interesting little book which I am glad to possess; especially with the kind remark which you have written in it. A large box left Colombo yesterday, I believe, containing, among other things, bows and arrows and an axe for the museum. My brother will send them on to you when the box reaches my home in Hertfordshire. So far as I have been able to make out the Weddo are not long lived but they look aged comparatively early. I hope you will find something of interest in the skulls. They are, when alive, people of little [illegible crossed out] [insert] more [end insert] intelligence than beasts of field. The great difficulty in getting any words or information from them arose from a singular want of concentration in them. They appear to think of nothing, and to be in a state of “pure Being”, if one may say so, and nothing else. They look serious and unhappy. [Describes physical anthropology specimens and also John Bailey’s work on Vedda, Hartshorne believes Vedda do not laugh, he has compared his Vedda dictionary with Hunters favourably, he is travelling into Rodiyas country] ... I hope you have received the photo: by this time ...
Nuwara Eliya
September 3 1872
My dear Sir
This morning I got a letter from you from which I was very glad to learn that the photo: of the Weddo interested you. I send another set at once and hope that this letter may be in time for this mail. ...
Dardanelles
November 19 1874
My dear Sir
My last letter to you was dated at Ceylon I think, and now I am on my way home on leave. I have been to Jerusalem and several places in Syria and am now about to go to Athens after having thoroughly seen the Iroad and all Dr Schliemann’s work at Hissarlik which is most interesting. The Turkish villagers are making sad havoc of the place I am sorry to say, but the Pasha has promised me that he will have them looked after in future & not allowed to destroy the remains there for building their ovens and stables as they are doing at present.
I have been lucky enough to find several prehistoric implements at Hissarlik, as well as one or two small things besides, which I hope you will allow me to show to you when I come up to Oxford, and if they are deserving of a place in the museum I should be very glad to give them to you for that purpose. Since Schliemann left n one has been here but three Americans, two Germans, the Duke of Oldenburg and General Ignatieff, so I was fortunate in finding things tolerably fresh. Dr Schliemann is in very bad odour here and has greatly disgusted the Turkish authorities, who have entered an action against him for the recovery of the treasures which he found. The court of the Areopagus ordered their sequestration, but they had disappeared, and no one knows where they are, except, I presume, Dr Schliemann himself. The consequence was that I was sent with a military guard and ordered not to pick up anything. However, I got a good deal and have received the Governor General’s permission to keep it all. I have done a little more with the Weddo, and a good deal with the Rhodiyas since I last wrote to you; but just now Hissarlik interests me most of all. I find that Schliemann has exaggerated a good deal and that his plans are incorrect. He was determined to make everything dovetail in with his original theory that Hissarlik was the true site and he has actually destroyed a large quantity of valuable remains which he discovered of a later date than what he wanted. [discusses Schliemann’s theories more] .. Hoping that I may have the pleasure of seeing you in the Spring believe me I remain very truly yours
B.F. Hartshorne
I expect to be home by Christmas when my address will always be “Iver – Uxbridge” in case you care to write regarding the things from Troy which I have mentioned, or wish at once to see them.
[The items are 1887.1.71, 74, 75, 251, 253-254]
Iver
Uxbridge
February 5 1875
My dear Sir,
I must apologise for my failure [insert] hitherto [end insert] to answer your kind letter which I found on my return home, as I have been away in Ireland, and did not know when I could get up to Oxford. If you will be there the week after next, I should like very much to come up on Monday February 15th; and it will give me great pleasure to accept the [Greek text] which you have kindly offered.
But, as I go on from Oxford to Bedfordshire, the following week would suit me equally well, and, in that case, if it is more convenient to you I would stop at Oxford on my way back from Bedfordshire.
I send you a small quantity of the ashes taken from the Hanai Iepe or what is supposed, I believe correctly, to be the common tomb of the Greeks. It is near to Bonnarbaski which Mr Tozer supposed to be on the site of Ilium, and about 4 miles from Hissarlik, Schliemann’s place.
I remain
very truly yours
B.F Hartshorne
Iver
Uxbridge
July 24
My dear Dr Rolleston
I send you some copies of photographs which I have had done in Ceylon for you & hope you will find them useful. I have no doubt that you will kindly let me have them at any time for reference or to exhibit or use for illustration if I ever want them for any such purpose.
I also send you by rail without paying the carriage (in accordance with your wish) a small box which contains two skulls; one of a Rhodiya & the other of a Kinnariya. [there follows information about them] ... I was much obliged by your kind letter about the meeting at the society of Antiquaries to hear Schliemann, I was very sorry that I could not be present as I was quite laid up with a bad ulcerated sore throat. However, all is well now, and I am also in the best of spirits & everything else as I am engaged to be married to the most lovely and clever girl in the world. She is Miss Byng ...
[Letter dated 24 May 1875 posting more skulls from Sri Lanka]
Iver
Uxbridge
February 26
Dear Mrs Rolleston
Will you excuse a hasty letter which I write just as I am starting for London in order that I may return, with very many thanks, Mr Busk’s letter, and send for Dr Rolleston that which I believe to be the only copy of the only photograph ever taken of the Rodiyo? I wish him to keep it if he cares for it, but I may perhaps want it again (only temporarily) upon some future occasion and then, if I write, I have no doubt that he will let me have it.
The people represented therein come from Liwa [?] a district of Ceylon more uncontaminated than any other in Ceylon by admixture with alien races.
I have written already to four persons for an entire Wedda skeleton or if that is not possible for, as Menander says [Greek text], a skull; also for skulls of Rodiyo and Kinnariyo and also for photographic likenesses of each of the latter.
As soon as I return from London I will send a box containing a few more Trojan antiquities. I am very greatly indebted to your husband for his kindness in putting me up for the Anthropological Institute and I also owe you many thanks for the very pleasant visit which I paid last week at Oxford.
Believe me to remain
sincerely yours
B.F. Hartshorne
[NB not all the Hartshorne letters were transcribed only those relating to PRM objects]
[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:List_of_Carthusians_1800-1879.djvu/122
Hartshorne,* Bertram Fulke, 1857-63. Son of Rev. Chas. Henry Hartshorne. b. 1844. Pemb. Coll. Oxf. Indian Civil Service. Retired. Barrister.
Joseph Foster Men at the Bar: a biographical handlist ... page 50:
Hartshorne, Bertram Fulke, B.A.,
S.C.L., Pembroke Coll., Oxon, 1868, from the Charterhouse, scholarship 1863, went the South-eastern circuit. Government auditor for Middlesex and Herts, member of Ceylon civil service 1869-75, a student of the Inner Temple 30 Jan., 1875 (then aged 30), called to the bar 3 July, 1878 (youngest son of Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne, of Holdenby, Northants, dec); born 26 Oct., 1844 ; married 7 Oct., 1875, Frederica Amelia, dau. of Rev. John Byng, and has issue (see Foster's Peerage, V. Torrington). 41, Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea, S.W. ; i, Pump Court, Temple, E.C...]
-----
Auberon Herbert
Ashley Arnewood Farm
Lymington
March 20
My dear Rolleston
Will you accept from us a little obsidian core from I. of Milos.
It strikes my wife & myself as one of the best examples [insert] in a humble fashion [end insert] of the wonderful neatness & accuracy of manipulation, which the stone people attained to.
Hoping one day you will come to us.
Always
Auberon Herbert
[1887.1.255]
----
Holland
[2 letters not transcribed]
Dumbleton
Evesham
July 5th 1873
Dear Sir
My friend Dr Wilson forwarded on your letter to me & in reply I must tell you that the only skull I brought home was supposed to be that of an Aino from Yezo Island, Japan. All the weapons I possessed with the exception of a bow & some arrows from the Fuegians in the Magellan Straits I have presented to the British Museum, if the bow is of any use to you you are very welcome to it
yours obedly
S.C. Holland
26 Lion Terrace
Portsea
July 15.73
Dear Sir
Having left home rather in a hurry I had not time to arrange about the bow & arrows nor had I an opportunity of responding to your kind offer of finding a secure resting place for them over to you on these terms altho’ you may I think with safety enter them in a catalogue, I have also I believe some Patagonian bolas also a coco-de-mer wh. I brought from the Seychelles. I will write home & ask them to send these things to the parcel room at the Oxford station at the same time sending you a notification of the fact. I fear that my letter misled you as to the skull for the only one I brought home was given to the Hunterian collection Could you tell me if any-one you know of is interested in the microscopic examination of deep sea bottoms, I have some to spare from the bed of the Indian Ocean & I should wish some good use to be made of them.
Believe me
yours truly
S.C. Holland
[The coco-de-mer is 1887.1.506 a, a note in the accession register says it was not exhibited!]
[Postcard]
Miss Holland has today forwarded by rail to Dr Rolleston a Fuegian bow & arrow & a double cocoanut according to instructions from Lieut. Holland. We cannot find the Patagonian bolas it must therefore be mistaken [?]
Dumbleton
Evesham
July 28th
Dumbleton
Evesham
July 31st
Miss Holland pres’ts her compl’ts to Professor Rolliston [sic] & begs to inform him that it is quite right about the F. bow & arrows – it was an old label on the arrow case – left by mistake –
The [illegible] to send the Pat: bolas next week
[1887.1.527, bow quiver and arrows from Tierra del Fuego]
HMS Bellerophon
Portsmouth
Oct 21st 73
Dear Sir
I am sorry to say that I cannot find the Bolas I promised to send you but having some rather uncommon Japanese books I have forwarded them to you from Dumbleton as a loan to the Oxford Museum if you care to receive them. If not will you kindly send them back to Dumbleton Evesham.
The Bellerophon will sail shortly for the West Indian & N. American station & I shall be happy to do anything I can for you while out there either in the way of collecting or photography, the latter will be on rather a small scale but if you want any particular subjects I shall be glad to try & obtain them for you. It has always appeared to me a pity that we naval men who spend the best part of our days in travelling over the world should do so little towards contributing to collections wh. are of use & instruction to so many at home & altho we seldom if ever have time to master any particular branch get a general knowledge of many subjects might enable us to make valuable additions to museums & to be able to discriminate between the valuable and useless specimens which is generally a difficulty.
Yours faithfully
S.C. Holland
[There is a large collection from Swinton Colthurst Holland in PRM transferred from OUMNH, mostly from Peru but also Tierra del Fuego, it does not include a bolas]
------
Hutchinson
98 Talbot Road
Bayswater, W.
London
May 21/ 74
Sir
Our mutual friend Mr Franks has told me it is probable you might like to purchase some of a large lot of skulls which I have belonging to the Prehistoric People of Peru. They are in excellent order, and nearly all have got lower jaws. I have about 200 of them the greatest portion of them being of the Chimoo race. The price will be
Lots of 10 at 15/0 per
do [ditto] of 20 at 12/- per
do [ditto] of 30 at 10/- per
do [ditto] of 50 at 7/6 per
and for the whole lot at one sale 5/- per
I have amongst them four whole bodies which of course would require exh... [illegible]
Yours faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
98 Talbot Road
Bayswater, W.
London
May 23rd/ 74
Dear Sir
I am in receipt of your letter of yesterday and shall be very glad to shew you the skulls and skeletons about which I wrote to you They are not however at my house of residence here but at the Bethnal Green Museum – which I need not inform you is at the Antipodes of London I shall however [2 words illegible] you to the St Marys Hospital at say from 4 to 5 p.m. and I shall accompany you to the Museum. If you could possibly make arrangements to remain in London over Wednesday it would be more easy to inspect them on Thursday morning or 5 p.m. in such an out-of-the-way place as Bethnal Green would give only a temporary glance. The interest attached to these skulls from the point of them having belonged to an extinct race [3 words illegible] to make them very well worth [illegible, possibly perusing] In the Museum I have also a collection of pottery ware of copper implements and of cloth made by these same people in Peru, [illegible] at the Antiquaries Society Somerset House, last week I [illegible] to hear an exact resemblance to the pottery, copper things lately excavated from the remains of [illegible ?Chim] by Dr Henry Schliemann If you would tell me where is St Marys Hospital I shall be so much obliged and if you can arrange to [illegible] to adopt my programme I shall wait upon you Some of the skulls have holes in the temple and parietal bones, caused by stones flung from slings
Believe me
Dear Sir
Yours faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
Professor Rolleston
Oxford
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
4 St Martins Place W.C.
May 23rd 1874
Dear Sir
Since I wrote to you this morning I find that I shall be able to arrange for letting you see about 60 of the skulls and one of the mummies (or skeletons or body rolled up in its coffin) at these rooms, at any time between 4 and any hour after till 10 p.m. Our Secretary Mr Collingwood has kindly placed the large table and room here at our service for the occasion by which the [illegible] journey to Bethnal Green will be avoided Pray write to me to my address, 98 Talbot Road Bayswater to say if this will suit and
Believe me
Dear Sir
Yours faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
from 4 p.m. and afterwards on Wednesday 27th 1874
98 Talbot Road
Bayswater, W.
London
May 25th/ 74
My Dear Sir
Many thanks for your card of admission of which I shall avail myself if possible. I have however a long journey to make before hand to Bethnal Green Museum and to have the articles arranged for your inspection at 4 St Martins Place where I hope to have all ready at and after 4 p.m.
Yours faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
98 Talbot Road
Bayswater, W.
London
May 29th/ 74
My Dear Sir
I am in receipt of your note of today, and will meet your servant on Tuesday the 2nd [insert] prox [end insert] at 11.00 am at 4 St Martins Place, where after arranging about what I left there we can go together to Bethnal Green This is necessary as the skulls could not be got out of it without my personal appearance I am obliged to put it off till Tuesday as tomorrow will be a dies non in London, and on Monday I am booked for the levee at St James’s
If your messenger cannot be at St Martins Place at 11 am please drop me a line and I shall try to have it a little later
Believe me
I am Sir
Yours Faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
98 Talbot Road
Bayswater, W.
London
June 4th/ 74
Dear Sir
I am in receipt of your letter [illegible] with the £25 cheque for which accept my thanks I enclose herewith one of my last brochures
I am much obliged for your kindness in the invitation to Oxford – but at present I cannot avail myself of it. This day week I commence removing to a small cottage which I have taken at Mill Hill near Harlow about 8 miles from London on the Birdland Line [?]
Have you got in Oxford any museum for the keeping of such articles as I brought with me from Peru, of which there is a short notice in the paper I sent you To any ethnological collection they would be interesting. After they have been six months exhibited in the Bethnal Green Museum they will be sold
Believe me
I am Sir
Yours Faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
Chimoo Cottage
Mill Hill
London N.W.
The Ring
Broadway
Coffexford [?]
Ireland
September 8th 1874
My dear Sir,
As the Peruvian Antiquities 135 in number which I have lent to the Bethnal Green Museum are not to be kept there more than six months (of which one half is now passed) I should very much like to have a prospect of selling them And I should prefer to let them accompany the skulls which were so long buried [insert] with [end insert] them as so many be presumed these things will come to illustrate each other. The list which I inclose [sic] herewith is a mere thing of labels – not at all like the catalogue which I gave in. But it may give an idea of what they are, and in case you purchase them I shall furnish a descriptive catalogue of the whole.
The collection of these with the case transport costs of packing and [illegible] stand me in expense of over £100 I suppose that I must nevertheless be proposed to make a sacrifice and that be happy to receive from you a proposal for them I need not repeat my conviction of what a pity it will be if they are not procured for either Oxford or Cambridge Museums. I shall be here for some weeks before returning to London
Believe me
I am Sir
Yours Faithfully
Tho Hutchinson
[NB Hutchinson’s writing is very flowery and difficult to read, so there are probably some errors in transcription, also note that there is only one object from Hutchinson that came to us via OUMNH, a Peruvian scalp found unentered 2000.69.1, all the others came from Pitt-Rivers who acquired them via Lord Cochrane and the Anthropological Institute.]
--------
Joseph King
20 St Marys Place
Southampton
28 Augt 1874
My dear Dr Rolleston
Through the state of my wife’s health who is thought by medical men to be suffering from pulimonary disease I have been compelled to relinquish all ideas of returning to Samoa, at least for the present. And as I have been advised to go out to Australia before another [illegible] we are now busy preparing to sail for Melbourne on the 10th of September.
I am very very sorry that I shall not see you again before I leave England. I hoped to visit Oxford again but now I am so busy preparing for our voyage, and our time is so short that I don’t see how I can do so
Next week I have to go to Glasgow to represent the Missionary Society at Mr W. Turners ordination. He is Wm Turner’s son and after completing his studies at Glasgow he is going out as Medical Missionary to New Guinea
We have so recently come to a decision about our voyage and there are so many things to be done that I cant even snatch a day from my engagement to pay you a visit
I have packed up a few curiosities and as I have to go to Reading today I shall take the parcel with me and send it per rail from there. I will enclose in this letter a list of the things with descriptions.
The volume of the New Zealand Institute I will enclose in the parcel
I hope on my arrival in Australia to receive an appointment to a church in one of the Colonies. May go to New Zealand or remain in one of the Australian Colonies. I should like to go to the former place & make the acquaintance of the Maoris their affinity with the Samoans would form a pleasing link in more respects than one with my old sphere of labour.
I shall often think with gratification of the pleasant & profitable visits to Oxford and of the kind reception I had to your house
It was a great pleasure to me to discover the deep interest you take in the Polynesian Races, not only from Ethnological considerations but also for the sake of the moral and religious elevation of those races. If by my residence in Australia or New Zealand I can be of any help to you in your study of the Aborigines of those parts of the South Seas [illegible] I shall be very happy to correspond with you and shall esteem it a pleasure to receive a letter from you at any time
A letter addressed to
Rev. L.R. Sunderland
secy of the London Miss So
Sydney
will always find me
With kindest regards
very sincerely yrs
Joseph King
[It seems likely that this list is GR/B/6/6]
-----
[Lane Fox, see here]
------
W.G. Lawes [see also GR.B.6.6]
[Correspondence from London Missionary Society and Fanny Lawes to Rolleston about sending Lawes donations to him (ie about practical matters).]
60 Queens Road
Reading
Saturday
Dear Sir
In reply to your note of this morning. The cassowary feathers are head dresses. The red lump of clay is Plumbago & used by the natives for adorning themselves, there is a good quantity of it near Port Moresby. The other garment was simply put in I expect to cover over the whole as a sort of cloth & is of no value whatever. I brought home with me two Goura pigeons. I have them here. I don’t know if you have many at Oxford Mr Lawes has just sent me a King Bird of Paradise It is a beautiful little thing though I suppose it is a young one not fully fledged.
If you are in Monday I should be pleased to let you see them
With kind regards
yrs truly
Fanny Lawes
[Letter from Lawes dated 11 September 1874 from Sydney telling Rolleston about passage and offering to get anything of interest to Rolleston and also saying he had written to his brother in Niue to get a skull and if possible a skeleton for Rolleston]
[NB in next two letters from New Guinea, several sections are crossed out or marked beside as tho they are the important bits, or else have been copied into some other format]
Port Moresby
New Guinea
March 18 1875
... I hope before long to send you a box of such things as are most likely to interest you but I have not much of a collection yet. In the meantime if you are in London & near our Mission House in Blomfield St Finsbury you could see there a small collection from here comprising pottery, bows & arrows, drums, hatchets, &c sent by Revd Mr Murray from Cape York. [then discusses scarcity of natural history specimens] ... I can give you a little authentic information about the people. the inhabitants of this part of New Guinea are of small physique Smaller in every way than the average South Sea Islander. The men are naked with the exception of a piece of string with which the penis is tied up. The women wear girdles reaching to the knees. Both are tattooed the women profusely & the men & boys all wear a polished stone through the septum of the nose. The women’s noses are pierced but they rarely wear anything through it, the ears of all are pierced in two & sometimes three places one at the top & another at bottom (the men wear their hair long the women (when married) short Neither polygamy nor polyandry is practised except in a few exceptional cases where a man has two wives In colour this people are a shade darker perhaps than our South Sea Islanders but their greater exposure to the sun & no clothes will account I think for that. From their countenances & some of their customs I should think they belong to the same race & trait both are of Malaysian origin... [at Port Moresby there is a ‘race’ called Motu and another called Koitapu, then describes another group called Maira] ... I hope to know more about the above races by & bye but as now I must confine myself to the people of this place.
Their houses are all built on the beach below high water mark, on piles 9 or 12 feet high. The weapons of war are bows & arrows (not poisoned) spears, all in one piece & rudely carved, clubs of heavy wood, flat shape & also stone clubs, the latter are just like some that I saw in the Museum at Oxford & said to be hatchets they are like this [drawing] with a handle about four feet long. They are stones but not ground or polished ones
their hatchets are stone like those I gave you from Savage Island & handled in the same way only more roughly – the men make good nets & very large ones both for catching fish & kangaroos their canoes are large but very roughly made – no covering at all about them They do not know the use of fish hooks at all. The women make pottery consisting of large basins, urns and such like The knowledge of this art seems confined to Motu, the other tribes or races bartering yams cocoanuts &c for them. The women are the makers they carry all the burdens, carry them as the Australian natives at Cape York do, suspended behind from a band across the top of the head. I have seen some of the women’s heads quite indented where the band goes Our knowledge of the language is as yet necessarily imperfect. There are several words in common with the dialects of Eastern Polynesia but the construction of the language is different. ... [promises to send dictionary] ...
Port Moresby
New Guinea
Jan 5 1876
... We have now been more than a year living among this people at Port Moresby. We have met with no wonderful adventures & have made no startling discoveries a la Lawson But we have acquired more real knowledge of the people & their customs ... This is a great commercial centre, many large canoes constantly coming & going on trading expeditions ... [describes locals languages and appearance] No iron weapon or implement is found No knowledge of any metal exists here. There is no knowledge of carving the rude attempts on some posts of their houses &c are very simple & poor. No skill is seen in the manufacture of spears, arrows & clubs. They are of the simplest kinds. The manufacture of pottery is confined to the coast tribe called Motu of which this is the largest & principal village.
The women carry their burdens as the women in Australian [sic] do, suspended from the head just behind the forehead. They make good netted bags in which they can carry almost anything.
I have taken a few photographs of which I will enclose you some. You will get a clearer idea of the way in which their houses are built from the photos than from any description ... [describes two recent journeys to areas around Moresby including finding and taking human remains for Rolleston] ... [at end Lawes gives permission for Rolleston to publish anything in his account he wants, and promises to send box of skulls, bones and curiosities]
Port Moresby
New Guinea
Jan 25 1876
My dear Dr Rolleston
I have just sent off two cases addressed to you. I have sent them to Somerset whence they will be forwarded to Sydney, thence by a sailing vessel to England consigned I expect to the Mission House It will probably months after this reaches you before you see the cases.
One case (unnumbered) contains a perfect bower of the New Guinea Bower Bird. Case No 2 contains box of birds in which is a Goura pigeon & a variety of other birds, 3 human skulls, one Kangaroo skull one jar of specimens in spirit 5 specimens of native pottery, 1 Hatchet, 1 hatchet head 3 stone clubs, an armlet, a nose stick & 2 ladies dresses. There is also a brown paper parcel for my boys in Reading if you will kindly forward it to them.
The birds are some of them my own skinning, the Goura & some others, others are prepared by two taxidermists who have been here collecting. In all the sex is indicated by the tying of the legs ... I do not know if the Goura is a slightly different species to those before known Dalbertis obtained two or three like this from Yule Island
In the spirit there are some lizards, a Johsinager [?], two young bandicoots &c &c
The skulls I have written you about in my former letter. I do not think there is anything else I need write you now. With very kind regards
I am
Yours very truly
W. Lawes
[1887.1.68, 545-8, 553-5]
Somerset
May 4th 1877
... [he is sending a large mixed bag of objects etc to England which Mrs Lawes will let Rolleston know about] ... Mrs Lawes is I hope in England by this time & I have written to her asking her to let you know when she receives the packages so that you may arrange with her the most convenient time & place for you to see them. Most of the curiosities were obtained on our voyage to China Strait & from places to the East of Hood Bay. Anything from Port Moresby Mrs Lawes will know & of you want precise information as to the exact locality from which any one article was obtained I can give it you. The specimens of carving are from Orangerie Bay eastward.
[talks about natural history specimens] ... I feel some delicacy in writing about payment for these things but I know you do not wish me to be out any expense for them. I have reckoned up my expenses ... & altogether a sum of about £25 would cover everything & leave a small balance to go on with. I wish I was in a position to present the Museum with all free of cost but my stipend is too small & the claims of my wife & family will not permit. ... You will understand I know that I have no wish to make money. I am only too glad to be able to send you anything I may yet which will be of any value to you, but anything you do not care for but which would be of value to the British Museum or elsewhere perhaps you would kindly point out to Mrs Lawes or dispose of for me. In all these matters please correspond with her as you would with myself.
I read in the post Signor D Alberti’s report of voyage up the Fly River. I saw his collection in Sydney It is a large & valuable one. The stone implements & weapons are very numerous & valuable. He cleared the native houses of their contents wherever he landed & has stone weapons & tools of every kind & in every stage of manufacture ... He has not disposed of it but I believe his friend Dr Geo Bennet who has just gone to England is authorized to sell it. The British or some other Museum should buy it. He expects, I believe, some £1500 for the whole. ...
3 Donnington Rd
Reading
June 26 1879
My dear Dr Rolleston
I am so sorry that I have not been able to see you since you were here in April.
I have not forgotten your counsel & proposals, but carrying them into effect is quite as difficult as ever. I should like to see you to talk the matter over, & I shall be glad to know too what you would like to have out of my New Guinea collection. I am at home now for a little & can come to Oxford for an hour or two almost any day that may be convenient to you. With very kind regards
I am
Yours sincerely
W.G. Lawes
G Rolleston Esq MD
[Copy of Letter dated 21 July 1880, saying Lawes is to return to New Guinea on 29 September] ... I have several applications for purchase of my stone clubs &c but have no idea what prices to put upon them. If you are at Oxford perhaps you cd help me by asking some of your assistants in the Museum to put a price to some of the things on the enclosed list. but if you are from home do not trouble about it. No yet [?] about returning the list – it is only a copy I think you told me you did not want any more of my collection
I have some specimens of pottery wh. you have not seen wh. I have left specially for you. If you will kindly let me know when you will be at home I shall be only too glad to come & see you for an hour or two
I am ..
W.G. Lawes
[line]
Stone clubs plain circular
[Drawing] One do [ditto] Mace shape
[Drawing]
Two do knobbed like the one in Museum
[Drawing]
T. over [ie turn over]
Stone Adzes
[Drawing]
Loose heads for do.
Drill with flint points Large Drum
Jews harp Saddle [?] well made and carved
Carved sago beaters
[Ditto marks] Chunaw [??] Knives
[Ditto marks] Chunaw [??] bottles [Gourds]
Large netted bag cradles
Small ditto [bagged cradles]
Woman’s petticoat [illegible]
Man’s girdle
Shell ornaments
Feather head dresses
All from New Guinea
Reading
Sept 21 1880
Dear Dr Rolleston
All being well I hope to come to Oxford on Wednesday morning by 11.40 train & bring with me a box of bones & specimens of pottery for you
I am sorry but shall have to leave at 2.
With very kind regards
I am
yours sincerely
WG Lawes
G Rolleston Esq MD
----------
GR/A/1 Rolleston correspondence M-R
Frederick Pond
Oct 28th
Haslingfield
Dear Sir
I have sent you three urns today from Lords Bridge Station which I have Bought since I received your last letter. I received the order quite safe the Bones in the large one was [?] in it when it was found it was filled with earth and bones will you Please to let me know if you have sent those things to Canon Greenwell which I sent in your last B... as I have not heard from him since and I have got some more things for him which I have bought since found with the skeletons one ring was on the finger bone when found those urns was found with the skeletons they broak [sic] the heads in getting them out But you shall have some as soon as they can get them I shall want 13 for those I should not have sent them untill [sic] I had got more only the men Bring me something most days and they are at work in the midst of them and I shall want the money if they bring me anything very good
yours obediently
Frederick Pond
Fossill [sic] Collector
[Added in Rolleston’s handwriting]
Sent 1£ by P.O. order
13 sh. for the urns
7 sh for Canon Greenwells things
[F. Pond keeps writing about burials and urns with bones he has found which he sells or tries to sell to Rolleston]
--------------
GR/A/1 Rolleston correspondence S-Z
G.R. Shaw
White Cottage
Leytonstone
London E
May 24th 1880
Prof Max Muller
Dear Sir
I hope you will pardon me, a complete stranger to you, addressing you without any introduction.
I have as one of the L.M.S. missionaries recently returned from Madagascar: and have brought with me a considerable number of the rubbings from the native carvings. My station has been in the Betsileo country among a people who appear to be older inhabitants of the island than the Hovao, [?] but who nevertheless allied to the stock, the Malayan. Very little has been written about these people & although as I believe, a more ancient immigration very little is known about them in England the very remarkable feature about them is that whereas the Hovao [?] have no specimens of an ancient art in the way of carving, the Betsileo contry abounds in memorials & the industry & taste of their ancestors in this direction It is [illegible] noticeable that the rudimentary forms used in their carvings are precisely the same as those used among the Samoans (Navigator’s Island) among whom we have lived for a couple of years.
Knowing that you are interested in these matters & not being acquainted with the names of others alike interested to I have taken the liberty of writing & asking if you would like to see & examine those I have with me They are of course very rough in appearance but I thought it was better to bring them home as facsimiles rather than touch them up with a view to their improved appearance. If you wld like to see them let me know where to send them. I presume by rail the parcel is beyond the Postal limit in point of size & I shall have great pleasure in submitting them to your inspection & begging your acceptance of any duplicates you may feel sufficiently interested in possessing. Also if there is any information that may be considered useful that I can supply I shall be very happy to do so
Yours sincerely
George R. Shaw
[NB this appears to be a copy letter, tho not in Rolleston’s handwriting, as it is on same blue paper as other notes, and on one of the pages of the 4 possible there is a copy of another letter from Shaw below]
White Cottage
Leytonstone
London E
May 31st / 80
Dear Sir
I very much regret that my engagements with the Society (the deputation work) make it quite impossible for me to accept your kind invitation to Oxford & to appoint a time. I therefore send you per G.W.R. the rubbings I mentioned any of the duplicates which you or friends interested in Ethnology would like to possess I beg the acceptance.
Although I may be unable to visit Oxford during the short remains of my stay in England, I shall be glad to render any information that may be desired I am in no hurry about the return of the papers, that you can examine them at your leisure. you will see that two are rubbings of the whole face of one of the house-posts – the round ones are mostly the doors & window shutters & the smaller pieces are taken from various portions of the interior fittings & furniture of the house. There is nothing of this kind in any of the Hoira [?] houses in the central provinces of Madagascar. I also send you a piece of Samoan cloth & a rubbing or two of carving in order that you may see the close resemblance of the simple forms & ideas of the two peoples.
yours sincerely
George R Shaw
[George A. Shaw wrote Madagascar of Today ... London 1886, the rubbings and cloth do not appear to have been transferred to PRM]
------
[on business headed paper, making it clear White was a printer and publisher from Worksop]
March 2 1878
Dear Sir
The arms &c which you saw when at Worksop were removed to one of our unoccupied houses which is now let and they must now be removed I should feel very much obliged if you could let me have your decision as early as possible
Yours truly
Robert White
P.S. I was very much delighted with my visit to Oxford
March 9 1878
Dear Sir
Your telegram to hand In answer to which I beg to say that I do not know any other Stone Implements than the ones marked X on the enclosed sheet
On the enclosed very rough sheet done by a youth you will find some of the articles figured. I have had them counted and I find there are upwards of two hundred of them.
The price I had offered for the Collection included the four old swords, but as you said you do not want these, I will take £35.0.0 for the other part of the collection.
I am
Yours faithfully
Robert White
[Telegram]
From Robert White Worksop
To Professor Rolleston Museum Oxford
There is both a bone and stone pounder amongst the collection
[There is a page with part cut out showing weapons from Pacific including clubs etc][There are no objects listed from White from the OUMNH in the PRM and no Pacific weapons that arent attributed to other collectors so presumably Rolleston did not buy this collection]
Whitmee
[NB see also GR/B/6/6]
Samoa, South Pacific
Nov 6th 1872
[To Prof Rolleston FRS]
Sir,
I was deliberating a few days ago where to send a few articles of Ethnological interest, now in my possession, in order to make the best use of them. A note in “Nature” of May 23rd on your efforts to extend the Ethological Collection in the Ashmolean Museum confirmed a previously formed resolution to send them to Oxford.
I am accordingly now sending, under the care of Revd J. King, of the Samoan Mission, the articles specified in the accompanying list. Mr King will probably reach England about May or June next.
The articles form part of a rather large collection which I made during a cruise in the Pacific two years ago – the major portions of which has already been [insert] distributed [end insert] amongst Colonial & Continental Museums & private friends. If further contributions of a similar kind will be of value to you I shall be happy to furnish them as opportunities for procuring them occur.
Although, as a nonconformist, I have not myself been able to receive the benefit from either of our National Universities, still I regard them with great interest. I am glad to see what I deem narrow restrictions, which have kept a large portion of the nation from the Universities, being removed; & I hope my sons will reap the advantage therefrom. As a humble student of Science I am also glad to see the efforts being made to give Natural Science a more prominent place in University studies.
The cranium & other human bones which I am sending you have, perhaps, an extrinsic value owing to the fact that the inhabitants of the island whence they came have become extinct. I believe these are the only human remains yet secured for any scientific Institution. ... [Whitmee gives Rolleston a pamphlet with some information and says his father in law has more, a Revd Dr Turner of Glasgow who is known to Rolleston]
With the greatest respect, I remain
Sir, yours very truly
S.J. Whitmee
Contents of box addressed
Prof. Rolleston
Ashmolean Museum [sic]
Oxford
England
c/o Rev J. King
From [illegible] Island
Cranium and other human bones
From Gilbert Islands
No. 1 Corslet 2. Jerkin 3. Trousers 4. Necklace 5. Do [ditto] 6. 7. & 8 Do 9. Cord of human hair; 10. Shark’s teeth knife 11. Shark’s teeth sword 13. [sic] War belt 12 Small mat worn by a virgin on her head when walking out; hung from her shoulder after marriage, until the birth of her first child when it is thrown away
From Ellice Islands
Fine wooden fishhooks, seven shell do. 1 bone do. A coronet & a hatchet
Also 4 spider shells from Gilbert Islands 2 pieces of bleached coral 1 fan & a basket from Samoa S.J. Whitmee
Samoa, South Pacific
July 31st 1874
Prof Rolleston M.D. F.R.S. &c &c
My dear Sir,
I have been trying to get a Samoan skull for you ever since I received your letter. I have just succeeded in getting one ...
[after this he continues sending crania and also natural history specimens]
Samoa, South Pacific
June 16th 1875
My dear Sir,
... On the 5th Feb 1874 I wrote a long letter to you & enclosed some photographs of Polynesians. I presume it, with several other letters I wrote at the same time, was lost during transit, as I have not heard from you of the receipt of the photographs. I sent at the same time a paper ... for the Zool. Soc. ... I am now forming a large collection of photographs of Samoans & other Polynesians which will, I think, be of some Ethnologic value. We have a moderately good professional photographer residing here for a time.
To my very great regret the “Challenger” did not call here ...
[Whitmee in later letter, when he is in England in 1878, asks Rolleston’s help in arranging for him to give one or two lectures about Samoan Ethnology and Philology which Whitmee wants to give to a broader audience than just non-conformist or missionary. Letter dated Oct. 1st 1878
---------
Whymper
[There is a large set of correspondence that I did not read or transcribe from Whymper regarding a set of ‘Eskimo’ skulls, the PRM has one lower jaw bone 1887.33.9 found unentered at some point after 1886]
In Box marked Transferred from Sackler Library 2005
Nothing of note for this project.
---------
GR/A/3 Greenwell correspondence
Greenwell
24 Jan 1876
My dear Rolleston
Did I by any mischance leave on the table in William’s room at the Museum or in my bed room the quartzite implements from the Cape.
I cannot find them either in my portmanteaux or hat box.
Don’t trouble to answer if I have not left them
When Franks comes as he does some day this week, I intend asking him to make a selection of Suffolk Drift implements, and some Neolithic flints, which I will give you for the Museum. He is more accustomed to select with a view to a Museum collection than I am, and so will do it better.
You must get Prestwich to let you have the contents of those flat cases in the gallery and amalgamate them with the [illegible] downstairs
Yours sincerely
W Greenwell
22 Nov 1876
My dear Rolleston
I have had a box of Irish stone things sent, I sometime back wrote for a series to Mr Gray of Belfast & he has now sent them. They are not a choice lot, but are cheap and as the Museum has nothing from Ireland perhaps it may be well for you to have them. There are axes, arrow points, knives, scrapers, hole & stones [?] spindle whorls whet stones &c &c The price is £4.5 If the Museum does not care to have them I will keep them to swap with.
I expected a better lot as I told him that I wanted it for the Museum but he says it is not easy to get good specimens which can only be procured by writing & picking them up as they occur.
Yours very truly WG
[Undated]
My dear Rolleston
I am glad you succeeded in getting a grant. How would you like to have some Swiss Lake Bronze things, or some Danish. The first I might be able to get, the latter I have now an opportunity of getting, for some £20, I could procure a very good lot of Danish stone implements and at a price considerably under the ordinary one. I forget what that rattletrap place, the Ashmolean, has in the way of Danish, if there is anything at all. …
[Undated]
Dear Rolleston
Will you send me the proper form under which I must designate Oxford as a legatee under my will. I have ordered a codicil to be prepared under which Oxford will take after the British Museum, and I have added your name to the number of Executors, though you declare that you are going to die first
Yours sincerely
W Greenwell
[Transcribed September/ October 2012 by AP]
