Archive Contents
The list below is classified by alphabetical order.
The evolution of primitive boat-construction and correspondence on either reading or publishing it as the Huxley Lecture. 1948-9.
A160 HUMAN HEAD AUCTIONS
/1 Press cuttings (photocopies)
1 Daily Telegraph, 5 May 1988 – ‘Sale of head angers Maoris’; Observer, 8 May – ‘Maori head storm’
2 Daily Telegraph, 9 May – ‘Sale of preserved head is offensive to Maoris’, letter from A.R. Spence; Daily Telegraph, 13 May – ‘Law threat to Maori head sale’
3 Times, 13 June – ‘Maori head’, letter from Bernard Denvir; Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, 14 May – ‘Sache gits’ (in German)
4 Observer, 15 May – ‘Vile trade’, letter from Judith Binney; Guardian, 18 May – ‘Head sale ban sought’
5 Daily Telegraph, 18 May – ‘Maori head auction “justified”’; Independent, 19 May – ‘Maoris bid to block sale of warrior’s head’
6 Independent, 19 May – ‘The sale of the Maori head’; Times, 19 May – ‘Move to stop sale of head’
7 Independent, 19 May – ‘Maoris bid to block sale of warrior’s head’; Daily Telegraph, 19 May – ‘Maoris seek ban on sale of head’
8 Scotsman, 20 May – ‘The trophy trade dealt double blow’; Times, 20 May – ‘Stuffed eagle lands Bonhams in court’
9 Daily Telegraph, 20 May – ‘Bonhams halts sale of Maori head relic’; ‘Stuffed eagle back to haunt auctioneers’; Guardian, 20 May – cartoon
10 Guardian, 20 May – ‘Head auction cancelled’; Times, 20 May – ‘£132,000 paid for fairground organ’
11 Independent, 20 May – ‘Maori warrior’s head withdrawn from sale’; Washington Post, 20 May – ‘Controversy Comes to a Head’; ‘Maori Head Dispute’
12 Independent, 21 May – ‘Swedes enticed by avant-garde glass’; Times, 24 May – ‘Maori case forces halt to sale of 28 heads’
13 Independent – ‘Getty’s private deals for Old Masters’; Daily Telegraph, 25 May – ‘Keeping it strictly for the birds...’
14 Antiques Bulletin, 28 May-3 June – ‘Maori head withdrawn from sale’; Times, 6 June – ‘Foul deeds of desecration’
A160/1/15 Wolverhampton Express & Star, 13 May – ‘Bid to sell head sparks protests’; South Wales Echo, 13 May – ‘Row over Auction of Man’s Head’; Liverpool Echo, 13 May – ‘Price on his head!’; Birmingham Evening Mail, 13 May – ‘Court threat over sale of head’; Aberdeen Press & Journal, 13 May – ‘Head sale injunction threat’; Shropshire Star, 'Move to block sale of a head’; Belfast Telegraph, 13 May – ‘Fury over auction of human head’; Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Storm over head auction’; Worcester Evening News, 13 May – ‘Head sale under threat’; Oxford Mail, 13 May – ‘Heading for war!’; Swindon Evening Advertiser, 13 May – ‘Head sale protest’
16 Aberdeen Evening Express, 18 May – ‘Head auction row’; Northampton Chronicle and Echo, 18 May – ‘Legal fight comes to a head’; Eastern Daily Press, 18 May – ‘Maori protest’; South Wales Argus – ‘Gwent campaigner leads fight to save tribal relic’; Hartlepool Mail, 18 May – ‘Comes to a head’; Liverpool Daily Post, 18 May – ‘Heading for court’; Birmingham Post, 18 May – ‘Legal fight on sale of head’
17 Western Daily Press, 20 May – ‘Maori head sale halted by protests’; South Wales Argus, 19 May – ‘Head sale’; Brighton Evening Argus, 19 May – ‘Headed off’; The Journal, 20 May – ‘Sale of Maori head halted’; Birmingham Post, 20 May - 'Auction–of Maori head shelved by Bonhams’; Bradford Telegraph & Argus, 19 May – ‘Head Sale off’; Portsmouth News, 19 May – ‘Head wrangle’; Irish Times, 20 May – ‘Head sale halted’
18 Liverpool Daily Post, 20 May – ‘Owner calls halt to Maori relic auction’; Eastern Daily Press, 20 May – ‘Headed off’; Morning Star, 20 May – ‘Maori head sale blocked by court’; Lloyds List, 20 May – ‘Head auction off’; Belfast Telegraph, 20 May – ‘Maori head sale halted’; Eastern Daily Press, 21 May – ‘Maori head row ends with “no sale” pledge’; Yorkshire Post, 20 May – ‘Maori head-sale halted’; South Wales Echo, 19 May – ‘Court threat to head sale’; Daily Mirror, 20 May – ‘Fight to get a head’
19 Portsmouth News, 20[?] May – ‘Grisly curios’; Sunderland Echo, 20 May – ‘Knocked on head’; Birmingham Daily News, 20 May – ‘Sale stalled’; Southern Evening Echo, 19 May – ‘Head sale’; Birmingham Evening Mail, 20 May – Sale of head is halted’; Jersey Evening Post, 19 May – ‘Head rethink’; Wolverhampton Express & Star, 19 May – ‘Maori sale’; Wolverhampton Express & Star, 18 May – ‘Head sale ban bid’; Dundee Courier & Advertiser – ‘Maori head sale is halted after court bid threat’
A160/1/20 East Anglian Daily Times, 20 May – ‘Plan to auction Maori head halted after court protest’; Western Morning News, 20 May – ‘Gory sale headed off’; Belfast Newsletter, 20 May – ‘Stuffed head not for sale’; The Press & Journal, 20 May – ‘Auction of Maori head halted’; Nottingham Evening Post, 20 May – ‘“Maori head” sale off’; West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 20 May – ‘That’s Life’; South Wales Argus, 20 May – ‘Maori’s head not for sale’
21 Western Mail, 20 May – ‘Sale of a Maori head is halted’; Sandwell Mail, 20 May – ‘Sale of head is halted’; Leicester Mercury, 20 May – ‘Maori head sale halted’; Edinburgh Evening News, 20 May – ‘Head not for sale’; Reading Evening Post, 20 May – ‘Human head sale’; Portsmouth News, 20 May – ‘Head sale halted’
22 Western Mail, 26[?] May – ‘Man’s inhumanity to man’, letter from J.C.C. Williams; Ipswich Citizen, 26 May – ‘Court stops macabre sale’; Antiques Trade Gazette – ‘Maori head withdrawn from sale’; Hansard, 25 May – ‘Maori Warrior’s Head (Sale)’; The Voice, 24 May – ‘This Savage Art’
23 East Anglian Daily Times, 2 June – ‘Legal talks over future of tattooed Maori head’; Ipswich Evening Star, 2 June – ‘Talks on future of Maori head’
/2 Correspondence
1 Jonathan Benthall, RAI Director, to Hermione Waterfield, Christie’s, 19 May 1988 – refers to report in the Times about the sale of a human head at Bonhams; believes that Christie’s also has plans for such a sale; RAI is not in favour of such sales; on a sale of skulls which was called off (tp.)
2 Hermione Waterfield, Tribal Art Department, to Jonathan Benthall, 26 May – refers to his letter of 19 May; the Chairman thought it prudent to remove the heads from the catalogue; asks for ideas ‘distilled’ at the Council meeting about heads; on the Sotheby heads referred to in his letter (tp. with autogr. notes by Jonathan Benthall added)
3 Jonathan Benthall to Hermione Waterfield, 31 May – Council considered the question of the heads on 4 May; was not aware of any opposition to the sale; read about the objections later; on the Sotheby’s incident; cannot comment on her planned sale; thinks sale of human remains could well excite controversy; offers to put her in touch with experts on the various cultures concerned (tp.)
A160/2/4 Hermione Waterfield to Jonathan Benthall, 20 June – refers to his letter of 31 May; would be interested to have the names of experts, so long as they are serious scholars; is aghast that he wrote without finding out what she had in her sale (tp.)
5 Jonathan Benthall to Hermione Waterfield, 21 June – his offer to put her in touch with experts stands but he needs a list of the various categories of human remains which she is thinking of selling; in the sale of human heads the key issue is whether or not a particular community objects; asks her to retract a sentence in her letter (tp.)
6 Ibid., 22 June – on the people of Vanuatu (photocopy)
7 Hermione Waterfield to Jonathan Benthall, 4 July – refers to his two letters; retracts the sentence in her letter; did not have a Maori head in her sale; mentions Virambat (tp.)
8 Jonathan Benthall to Hermione Waterfield, 5 July – refers to her letter of 20 June; if she retracts the sentence he will not take the matter further; on an editorial which he is writing for ‘Anthropology Today’; asks if she would like to make clear Christie’s position; on the line he is proposing to take (tp.)
9 Ibid., ibid. – refers to her letter of 4 July; thinks they may be cousins; on an editorial which he is writing for ‘Anthropology Today’; asks if she would like to make clear Christie’s position; on the line he is proposing to take (tp.)
10 Draft for ‘Anthropology Today’ on the ‘Bonham’s head affair’ (photocopy of printed text, with autogr. corrections)
11 Survival International, 5 July – Press Release – ‘Mokomakai (Maori Head) to be returned to New Zealand’. 2 leaves (tp.)
12 Hermione Waterfield to Jonathan Benthall, 13 July – refers to his letter of 5 July; wishes she could speak for Christie’s about the heads; on having a meeting with Survival International people; has no wish to offer heads to which groups have valid objections; is cynical about the aims of the protests; will telephone him if there is anything positive to report (tp.)
13 Jonathan Benthall to Hermione Waterfield, 14 July – refers to her letter of 13 July; on cataloguing in the Tribal Art Department; it is only recently that curators have removed human heads from display (tpc.)
In 1896 it was decided to commemorate Prof. Huxley with an annual lecture in his name. The lecturer was to be presented with a Medal, and the honour of being chosen to deliver the lecture was the highest the Institute could bestow. Negotiations were entered into with the Huxley Memorial Committee at the Royal College of Science, and an agreement was reached concerning the use of their commemorative medal. Each year the lecture was to be delivered by an eminent professor of a distinct branch of anthropology, and the lectures were to be published in the Journal. ‘Persons of distinction’ and the press were invited, and it was expected that the lecture would stimulate an interest in anthropology among the wider public. The first lecture was delivered on 13 Nov. 1900 at the Museum of Practical Geology by Lord Avebury, and entitled ‘Huxley the man and his work’ (published in Nature Vol. LXIII, pp. 92, 116 ff.); see JAI Vol. XXX, Anthropological Reviews and Miscellanea no. 120, p. 119. Francis Galton delivered the second lecture, an abstract of which can be found in Man no. 132, 1901; see also JAI Vol. XXXII 1902 Report of the Council for 1901, p. 4. Copies of further lectures can be seen in bound volumes, 114/14/1-4.
Memoranda on the establishment of a bureau of anthropology within the RAI. [1908-11].