ENGLAND: THE OTHER WITHIN

Analysing the English Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Occasional Papers on Technology

Alison Petch,
Researcher 'The Other Within' project

Occasional paper 'Stone-Worker's Progress' by Francis Knowles

Occasional paper 'Stone-Worker's Progress' by Francis Knowles

Occasional paper 'Classification of Artefacts' by Beatrice Blackwood

Occasional paper 'Classification of Artefacts' by Beatrice Blackwood

Occasional Paper: 'Decorative ... Uses of Fossils' by K.P. Oakley

Occasional Paper: 'Decorative ... Uses of Fossils' by K.P. Oakley

The first mention of the Occasional Papers on Technology [OP] series was in the Museum's Annual Report for 1939-40 (the first written by Thomas Kenneth Penniman):

The Museum has started a series entitled ‘Pitt-Rivers Museum Occasional Papers on Technology’, edited by the Curator and Demonstrator, and prepared by specialists in particular subjects of the Museum. A paper by the late Curator on Implements of the Natives of Tasmania was to have been the first. Sir Francis Knowles is working on Stone Age Techniques, and Mr. F.W. Robins on the collection of lighting appliances. Others are dealing with other subjects as the opportunity and the man come together. The present paper shortage has of course made it necessary for us to postpone the publication of new periodicals. [Annual Report 1939-40]

For reasons that are now unclear, Balfour's work on the Westlake collection of Tasmanian stone tools was never published, though the introduction to it, written by Penniman and Blackwood was typed and the manuscript, written by Balfour, was edited and footnoted. See here for the editor's introduction which gives more information about the putative publication. The handwritten manuscript is now in the PRM manuscript collections. [Balfour papers Miscellaneous publications Box 6]

The purpose of the Occasional Papers was made clear in the preface to the third in the series:

This, the third of our Occasional Papers on Technology, continues the series with the same aim as its two predecessors: to present technological processes in such a way that the reader, given suitable materials, could repeat the work and obtain the results described. [Blackwood, 1950: 3]

By 1970, the purpose of the OP series was reaffirmed by Penniman and Blackwood:

Our first decision, when one of us became Curator in 1939, was that the Museum ought to issue its own publications, both in exchange for those generously sent us by Museums and Learned Societies, and for people who might wish to buy definitive studies of some of our various subjects.

We had to call the publications 'occasional'. in order to allow members of our staff time, among their other duties, to work on the material available, and to enlist the help of our scientists, draughtsmen and photographers in making the book, and when we chose people with special abilities outside the staff, to see that they had ample time to work on the Museum material or other relevant matter and to use the special facilities we afforded. [Blackwood, 1970: preface]

The first Occasional Paper was published in 1944. It was published by the Oxford University Press on behalf of the Museum and cost five shillings. It was ‘The Manufacture of a Flint Arrow-head by Quartzite Hammerstone’ written by Sir Francis Knowles. In the preface, the editors (Penniman and Blackwood) said:

This is the first of our Occasional Papers on Technology; we expect to start another series of Occasional Papers on Ethnology and Archaeology when occasion allows. These papers from time to time will give an account of special pieces of research done in the Museum or under its auspices, and we hope that they will prove not unworthy of the high standard seet by the late Curator [Henry Balfour] in his many contributions to the knowledge of Archaeology and Ethnology, the way people lived and now live, and the Technology which explains their arts and crafts.' [p. 3]

The second series of Occasional Papers (on Ethnology and Archaeology) never happened (see full list of Museum publications) unless it was what was later called the 'monograph' series. In the 1942-3 Museum Annual Report Penniman wrote:

We hope and will endeavour, to raise money from time to time to continue to send out from the Museum publications of observation and experiment on techniques of dealing not only with stone, but with other raw materials in the production of useful or beautiful artefacts, and as this is a Department in which Archaeology and Ethnology are taught, some time to start a series of Occasional Papers on Archaeology and Ethnology.

The second OP was The McDougal Collection of Indian Textiles from Guatemala and Mexico, by Laura Start, published 1947-8.[1] The Annual Report for the year recorded, 'It is so written and illustrated that the processes can be repeated by other textiles workers. The price will be fifteen shillings'. Penniman in the Annual Report for 1947-8 said 'Other papers are in preparation, and when we get settled in our new quarters, can be less occasional'.

Beatrice Blackwood’s Technology of a Modern Stone-Age People in New Guinea went to press as the third OP, edited by the Curator [Penniman] and herself, and published by the Museum. [Annual Report 1948-9]

In the Annual Report of 1949-50 it was reported:

The Curator has finished editing Mr. H.H. Coghlan’s 'Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World' and sent it to press as Number 4 of our Papers. It will contain about 128 pages of text, 15 half-tone plates, and 21 line drawings, the preparation of the illustrations being largely the responsibility of Mr. K.H.H. Walters [2] and Mr. I.M. Allen. A valuable feature of the book is two chapters contributed by Dr. E. Voce, Metallurgist of the Copper Development Association, on the examination of specimens in the Pitt Rivers Museum, and on bronze castings made in ancient moulds in our collections. The Curator has contributed a section on Cire Perdue Castings illustrated by the splendid series collected for the Museum in 1888 by Captain, later Sir, Richard Temple,[3] and a section on furnace bellows illustrated from the Museum collections and by drawings kindly contributed by Mrs. N. De Garis Davies [4] and by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. As Secretary to the Committee on Ancient Metallurgy of the Royal Anthropological Institute, of which the Curator is also a member, Mr. Coghlan has developed and extended his practical experience and experiments of many previous years, and has promoted such work in others, and his method of presentation is fully in accordance with that for which our series of papers was founded. The Curator took the opportunity afforded by work on this book to clear out the accumulations of years and completely to rearrange the case illustrating the Metallurgy of the peoples of Asia and Africa.

Penniman wrote the next OP:

This year has seen the publication of Number 5 of our Occasional Papers on Technology under the title Pictures of Ivory and other Animals Teeth, Bone and Antler, with a text of 40 pages and 20 pages of half-tone plates. For the past ten years, the Curator has been collecting examples from many sources, and getting sections cut and microsections mounted by Mr. J.R. Lomax. Some of these microsections were photographed by Mr. William Chesterman, and others by Mr. A.W. Dent and Mr. Lomax, while Mr. K.H.H. Walters made photographs of other specimens and enlargements of parts of them. The photo-micrographs and photographs with a low magnification are intended to emphasize features that are apparent under a good reading-glass, or sometimes to the naked eye, and are shown and explained to help Curators and Keepers of large collections to identify materials. Questions of styles, periods, workmanship, and the like are outside the scope of the book, but references to standard authors on these subjects may be found in the bibliography. The Curator’s exhibition of some of this material has proved helpful in the Museum, and to others, and therefore it was decided to publish. The book may be obtained from the Museum at a cost of ten shillings. Earlier numbers in the series are The Manufacture of a Flint Arrow-head by Quartzite Hammerstone, by Sir Francis H.S. Knowles, Bart. (at 5s.), The McDougal Collection of Indian Textiles from Guatemala and Mexico, by Laura E. Start (15s.), The Technology of a Modern Stone Age People in New Guinea, by Beatrice Blackwood (10s.6d.), and Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World, by H.H. Coghlan, with chapters by Dr. E. Voce and by the Curator (15s.). Sales increase as the years go by, justifying our belief that there are a good many people wanting exact information of a kind that can be experimentally tested. [Annual Report 1951-2]

In the next Annual Report Penniman writes:

By the time this report is issued the Museum will have published Number 6 of its Occasional Papers on Technology. For many years Sir Francis Knowles has worked in the Museum making an extensive and intensive study of the techniques used by ancient and modern peoples in making stone implements, and has prepared a very valuable teaching exhibition of screens and cases. His book, entitled 'Stone-Worker's Progress, a Study of Stone Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum', deals with our very large collections, and contains the results of his own and other experimental work, of observations, and of references in the literature. It is illustrated by drawings made by himself and by Mr. I. M. Allen, and may be obtained from the Museum for 15s. Mr. G.E.S. Turner is well advanced on Number 7 of our series, and we hope to be able to make an announcement of its publication in our next report. He is dealing with animal-hair embroidery in North America and North-east Asia, including true embroidery, appliqué, coiling, and imbrication, and besides using material from the Museum he has been helped by specimens and information generously contributed by the Hudson's Bay Company (Canadian Committee), through Mr. Clifford P. Wilson, and by Mr. Maurice E. Bastien, proprietor of the Huron firm of Bastien Brothers, Lorette, Quebec. Other help came from Lady Knowles, with the gift of hair-embroidered snowshoe-moccasins worn by Sir Francis Knowles and herself in Canada, which provide a link of some importance in the investigation. The five earlier papers in the series, including that by the curator on ivory, bone, and antler, by Mr. Coghlan on the pre-historic metallurgy of copper and bronze in the Old World, by Miss Blackwood on the technology of a modern Stone-Age people in New Guinea, by Miss Start on the McDougall collection of Indian textiles from Guatemala and Mexico, and the classic paper by Sir Francis Knowles on the making of a flint arrow-head by quartzite hammer-stone, continue to receive favourable notices and to be read and asked for in many parts of the world, and to help us materially in adding to our collection of periodicals by exchange. [Annual Report 1952-3]

Next year he adds:

Number 7 of our Occasional Papers on Technology has gone to press, and will probably be nearly ready to publish by the time that this report appears. Hair Embroidery in Siberia and North America by Mr. G.E.S. Turner traces the use of moose and reindeer (including caribou) hair as a decorative medium from the Yenisei River by way of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to northern New England, and discusses the interaction of native and European artistic styles on the craft. In addition there is a chapter on the technique and distribution of coiled horse-hair work. Over twenty techniques are analysed and illustrated, and criteria are given for the definitive identification of the various hairs and for avoiding their all too frequent confusion with porcupine quills... Generous assistance has been given by many people in both Europe and America during the past year, but special thanks are due to Sister Beatrice Leduc, of the Immaculate Conception School, Aklavik, Northwest Territories, and Dr. Randolph L. Peterson, of the Royal Ontario Museum of Zoology and Palaeontology, Toronto. Sister Beatrice carries on the craft of hair embroidery and gave valuable information on working methods, as well as specimens of selected moose and caribou hairs. Dr. Peterson drew attention to the technique of identifying hairs by examination of their cuticular scales from impressions taken in plastic film. This method, first developed by American zoologists and further described by Mr. H.V.V. Williamson of the Royal Ontario Museum, was found to be readily adaptable to ethnological purposes and provided a much-needed guide through the uneasy hinterland where moose hairs and porcupine guard hairs overlap in measurements and general appearance. The book will run to between 85 and 90 pages, with 28 text figures and diagrams illustrating techniques and cuticular scale patterns of hair, and I6 pages of half-tone plates with a frontispiece, and will cost I5 shillings. By the time this report appears, it will no doubt be possible to send out a brief prospectus in our usual form. [Annual Report 1953-4]

The next publication was written by someone who was less closely associated with the museum:

Work is also far advanced on number 8 of the series, a book by Mr. H.H. Coghlan dealing with iron and the craft of the blacksmith from the earliest times to about A.D.I000. Full explanation of all processes in the manufacture of such iron with illustrations of the tools and methods is accompanied by metallographic and metallurgical analyses with photographs and photomicrographs to show how much the iron-worker knew at various periods of history. So far, analyses have given us a skeleton outline of development from about 600 B.C. to A.D. I000, and we are still collecting suitable iron to fill in various gaps in the record. In addition to those who helped us last year we have to thank Mr. W.F. Grimes and the Roman and Mediaeval London Excavation Council, Mr. W.A. Smallcombe, Director of the Museum and Art Gallery of Reading, Mr. G.H.S. Bushnell, Curator of the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Univcrsity of Cambridge, Miss Olga Tufnell of the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Research Expedition to the Near East, and Mr. H. St. George Gray, for supplying us with iron. The analyses are being done by Mr. T.H. Williams, Manager, Chemical Research, and Mr. P. Whitaker, Manager, Metallographic Research, of Messrs. Stewarts & Lloyds, Limited, of Corby, Northants., and we are most grateful to them for the interest and care with which they prepare their valuable illustrated reports. This book will probably be published in I956, as there are yet various specimens to be analysed, both to fill in gaps in the record, and to replace specimens incapable of yielding full results, and to allow Mr. K.H.H. Walters and Mr. I.M. Allen to prepare the numerous illustrations from widely scattered sources. [Annual Report 1953-4]

The next publication was written by someone who had been worked in the Museum as a volunteer for many decades:

This year saw the publication of the latest and, sad to say, the last book by the late Sir Francis H.S. Knowles, Bt., on 'Stone Worker's Progress, a Study of Stone Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum', as Number 6 of our Occasional Papers on Technology. It takes a valuable place in a series of publications which has gone into practically every country of the world except Communist China, bringing many useful periodicals in return and the help of many scholars, and has proved that there is a general desire for the presentation of technological processes in such a way that the reader, given suitable materials, can repeat the work, and obtain the results described. The series was deliberately described as Occasional, because each publication was designed to be the result of prolonged investigation and experiment, and the papers are on technological processes of interest to archaeologists and ethnologists partly because no other Museum has undertaken such a series, and partly because General Pitt Rivers and Professor Henry Balfour undertook this type of investigation in a Museum so founded and arranged that it demanded such work to be done. [Annual Report 1953-4]

It is clear that the OP series drew the attention of scholars and the public to the work of the Museum:

In September I954 the British Association for the Advancement of Science visited Oxford and made its headquarters in the Science Area. The Museum offered hospitality to the Committee of the Section for Engineering Science besides taking part in the work of its own Section dealing with Anthropology and Archaeology. During the open evening in the Science Area and throughout the week the Museum showed special exhibitions of work done and in progress for the first seven of its Occasional Papers on Technology, dealing with analyses and techniques of metallurgy, stone-working, textiles, and ivory and animal teeth, bone and antler among other subjects, and these roused considerable interest both in the methods of work and in the publications. [Annual Report 1954-5]

In the same report Penniman reported on the most recent publication:

July of this year also saw the completion and sending to press of number 8 of our series, Mr. H.H. Coghlan's Notes on Prehistoric and Early Iron in the Old World, with about 216 pages of text, including 57 text-figures, and I6 pages of half-tone plates, to be published about September 1956 at a cost of 25s. This book deals with the craft of the blacksmith and the processes needed to make iron useful, from the earliest times to about A.D. 1000, with illustrations of tools and methods, giving an idea of what the smith knew at various periods of history. We are indebted to the British Iron and Steel Research Association for introducing us to the Director of the Department of Research and Technical Development of Messrs. Stewarts & Lloyds, Limited, who kindly allowed necessary metallographic and metallurgical analyses to be made in his Department. The analyses were done by Mr. T.H. Williams, Manager, Chemical Research, and Mr. P. Whitaker, Manager, Metallographic Research, and we are indeed grateful to them for the interest and care with which they prepared their valuable illustrated reports. The book includes an illustrated chapter on metallographic and metallurgical reports, by kindness of the Director of Research and Technical Development, and a chapter with definitions of metallographic and metallurgical terms by Mr. I.M. Allen. As in other books of our series, Mr. K.H.H. Walters and Mr. I.M. Allen did most valuable work over a long period in the preparation of the illustrations for the press. Indeed, without their work, we should find it impossible to continue our publications on anything like our present scale. By now our series has become firmly established in practically every country as filling a need that no other Museum fills, and carrying on the tradition of our Founder and the life-long work of the late Professor Henry Balfour. The maintenance and continuance of this series, so completely in harmony with the organization of the Museum and its purpose, is a major part of our duty. [Annual Report 1954-5]

It is clear that the intentions of the Curator, as Editor of the series, were not always achieved (or achievable). In 1955-6 Penniman reported:

Numbers 9 to I2 are already commissioned. Mr. R.D.G. Faudree [5] has promised to write on 'The Physical Background of Pottery', Mr. A.C. Bains [6] is engaged on a study of folk-bagpipes, including our Balfour collection, Miss Blackwood is preparing a study of 'Patterns and Techniques of the Melanesians of SW. New Britain', and Dr. Butt [7] will deal with techniques of a tribe in British Guiana. Announcements will be made as numbers are due to appear. [Annual Report 1955-6]

But three years later:

No. 9 of our Occasional Papers on Technology appeared on 26 July as ‘Bagpipes’ by Anthony Baines, with 140 pages of text, 78 text figures drawn by Anthony Wootton, 16 pages of half-tone plates, mainly from photographs by K.H.H. Walters, and a frontispiece, and is being sold at 21s. While our Museum publications are planned for specialists, and are printed in small editions, designed to meet demands for a good number of years ahead, we were mindful both of the fact that music has a wider popular appeal than some of our subjects, and that Mr. Baines has already reached a wide public, both by his music and by his other publications, notably in his Woodwind Instruments and their History and in his work as editor of the Galpin Society Journal, and we therefore printed an edition of 1,250 copies. At the time of writing, early in August, we have already sent out over 150 copies for sale and exchange. The book is based on the Museum’s collections of bagpipes from all parts of the world, probably the finest extant systematic collection of this most important of our folk wind instruments, and we are most fortunate in getting Mr. Baines with his well-known knowledge of the subject to prepare an interesting and authoritative book which will be a standard work for a long time to come. [Annual Report 1959-60]

The Baines publication would prove to be the most popular OP ever:

Bagpipes’, by Anthony Baines, No. 9 of our Occasional Papers on Technology, has taken its place as a standard work, judging by the reviews of musicians and scholars who are fitted to assess the book, and has, apart from exchange and review copies, sold 253 copies in the past year after the initial call for it last year. Coghlan’s ‘Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze of the Old World’, No. 4 of our series, has gone out of print, and is now reprinting to satisfy demands which are still regular, until we can find time and money for a new edition. It is still standard, but there is later material which could be added. Some of this will appear in No. 10 now well advanced, on ‘The Metallurgical and Metallographic Study of British Bronze Age Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum’, being prepared by the Curator and Mr. I.M. Allen. About 150 implements will be shown, together with the attendant micrographs and explanations. The whole series now has a steady sale throughout the world, based as it is on the principle Nullius in verba, with material so presented that any capable person can repeat our work and judge for himself. [Annual Report 1960-1]

In the 1994-5 Annual Report it was reported:

Since it was first published in 1960, 'Bagpipes' has been the best-selling volume in the Museum’s series of Occasional Papers on Technology, and it is still much in demand.

In Penniman's last annual report he recorded:

Our Occasional Papers on Technology continue to have a large demand, both in sales and by exchange for periodicals and books. As we had hoped, a considerable number of people really want exact information, tested if need be by experiment, with no possible question shirked or glided over by generalities. We have already reprinted number 2, Laura Start’s 'The McDougall Collection of Indian Textiles from Guatemala and Mexico', and number 4, H.H. Coghlan’s 'Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World'. Number 3, Beatrice Blackwood’s 'The Technology of a Modern Stone Age People in New Guinea', has nearly all been sold, and is now being reprinted to satisfy a steady demand, and we must continue to make provision in our budget for reprinting. Following on number 9, Anthony Baines on 'Bagpipes', the large edition of which is still selling rapidly, the Curator and Mr. I.M. Allen were preparing number 10, 'A Metallographic and Metallurgical Study of Bronze Age Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum', but in addition to the Curator’s long spell in hospital, Mr. Allen has had to spend some time in hospital and convalescence with a serious heart trouble. We have therefore planned to offer as number 10 a musicological study of some of the tape recordings made by Dr. Audrey Butt in British Guiana, with the help of Miss Joan Rimmer,[8] and hope to accompany the transcriptions and study in the book with some long-playing recordings of the music itself, which can be bought separately by those who desire to do so. This will mean that the metallographical book is now planned as number 11 of our series. This book will be finished with the help of Mr. H.H. Coghlan and Mr. Dennis Britton. [Annual Report 1962-3]

Penniman's period as Curator from 1939-1963 was, with hindsight, the golden period for this publication, though the series did continue after 1963.

After 1963

Publication of new volumes slowed after 1963. During the next two decades only 3 were published:

Britton, D. (with I.M. Allen and H.H. Coghlan). Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Pitt Rivers Museum: Occasional Papers on Technology, No. 10. [Annual Report 1970-1]

Blackwood, Beatrice. The Classification of Artefacts in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Pitt Rivers Museum: Occasional Papers on Technology, No. 11. [Annual Report 1969-70]

No. 12 Oakley, K.P. [9] Decorative and symbolic uses of vertebrate fossils. [Annual Report 1974-6]

All of the above were edited by Penniman and Blackwood. Some prospective publications never saw the light of day:

Mr. Jeremy Montagu [10] began a period of research on the museum's fine collection of conches and horns from all over the world, preparatory to writing a monograph for the Pitt Rivers series of Occasional Papers on this subject. [Annual Report 1966-7]

The museum published two new books during the year 1985-6: Dr Kenneth Oakley's 'Decorative and Symbolic Uses of Fossils', Occasional Paper No. 13, and 'Birds and Animals', a children's colouring book illustrated by Francis Turner with text by the artist and Julia Cousins. [Annual Report 1985-6] The thirteenth Occasional Paper was the first not edited by Penniman. Ray Inskeep,[11] a curator-lecturer (and at one time acting Director) of the Museum, did the honours.

This marks a new turn where the Museum published other books outside the OP series. Earlier in the 1980s 'World on a Glass Plate', written by Elizabeth Edwards and Lynne Williamson,[12] had been published, a selection of early anthropological photographs from the Museum’s notable collection with a commentary. [Annual Report 1980-1]

In the 1990s M.C. [Catherine] Fagg’s 'Rock Music',[13] surveying the natural rock gongs of the world, appeared as number 14 in the Occasional Papers on Technology series [Annual Report 1997-8], edited by Linda Mowat, who also worked at the museum.

Penniman's key role in establishing and ensuring the success of the Occasional Papers series was recognized in 1976:

It is with the greatest regret that we record the death on 16 January of Mr. T.K. Penniman, Curator Emeritus, who was Curator from 1939 to 1963. After his retirement he continued to take great interest in the affairs of the museum and gave invaluable help (with Miss B.M. Blackwood) as an editor of the Occasional Papers on Technology. The museum received a bequest under his Will. [Annual Report 1976-7]

The current series of research project websites can be seen as a form of successor to the Occasional Papers, and to Balfour's work.

A current list of Museum publications can be found here.

A full list of all the Museum's publications 1884-2008 can be found here.

Further reading of reviews of the Occasional Papers

H. Holmes Ellis Review of The Manufacture of a Flint Arrowhead by Quartzite Hammerstone by Francis H.S. Knowles, American Antiquity, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Jul., 1945), p. 63

Ellen Ettlinger Review of Decorative and Symbolic Uses of Vertebrate Fossils by K.P. Oakley Folklore, Vol. 87, No. 1 (1976), p. 119

Stephen Foltiny. Review of Notes on Prehistoric and Early Iron in the Old World by H.H. Coghlan American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 59, No. 5 (Oct., 1957), p. 928

E.W. Gifford. Review of The Technology of a Modern Stone Age People in New Guinea by Beatrice Blackwood American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1951), pp. 257-258

Herbert Maryon. Review of Notes on the Prehistoric Metallurgy of Copper and Bronze in the Old World. by H.H. Coghlan Man, Vol. 52, (Mar., 1952), pp. 42-43

 

K.P. Oakley. Review of Pictures of Ivory and Other Animal Teeth, Bone and Antler: With a Brief Commentary on Their Use in Identification. by T.K. Penniman, Man, Vol. 53, (Mar., 1953), pp. 44-45

Cyril S. Smith Review of Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum by Britton Coghlan and Allen American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Apr., 1973), pp. 509-510

Laura E. Start. '78. Indian Textiles from Guatemala and Mexico'. Man, Vol. 48, (Jun., 1948), pp. 67-68

Frank Willett. Review of Stone Worker's Progress: A Study of Stone Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum by Francis H.S. Knowles Man, Vol. 54, (May, 1954), p. 78

 

Notes

[1] Laura Start was an academic from Victoria University, Manchester, she appears to have written frequently about textiles including 'Coptic cloths' Bankfield Museum, 1914; 'Burmese textiles from the Shan and Kachin districts' Bankfield Museum 1917; 'The Durham collection of garments and embroideries from Albania' Halifax Corporation 1939 / Bankfield Museum 1977 ['Establishing Dress History', Lou Taylor, Manchester University Press 2004 p. 257]

[2] Kenneth Henry Walters was a technician at the Museum from 1946, he was the third generation of his family to work as a technician in the Museum. He finally retired in 1989 from the post as the Head Technician.

[3] Richard Carnac Temple (1850-1931) army officer and oriental scholar who donated a large collection of (mainly) Burmese artefacts. See here for the wikipedia entry about him and 'Obituary: Sir Richard Carnac Temple, Bart., C.B., C.I.E.' The Geographical Journal, Vol. 77, No. 6 (Jun., 1931), p. 591.

[4] Anna Nina Macpherson Davies (1881-1965) was an artist, married to Norman de Garis Davis, who helped on his Egyptian excavations. See here for more information about her.

[5] I have not been able to find out any information about R.D.G. Faudree except for some information in T.H. Beckett '251. Two pottery techniques in Morocco', Man, Vol. 58, (Dec., 1958), pp. 185-188, page 186 'The analyses given and conclusions drawn are all those of Mr R.D.G. Faudree of New College, Oxford.' He seems to have worked on ceramics and glass, see here,

[6] Anthony Cuthbert Baines (1912-1997) Musician, Curator of the Bate Collection, University of Oxford from 1970-1980.

[7] Audrey Butt-Colson, Anthropologist and former Lecturer/ Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, she did her fieldwork among the Akawaio in the Upper Mazaruni in Guyana.

[8] Joan Rimmer was the author of a series of books on musical instruments and an expert on ethnomusicology and musician.

[9] Kenneth Page Oakley (1911-1981) He worked at the Natural History Museum from 1934 until retirement from ill-health in 1969. He was an anthropologist, geologist and worked in Quaternary research. He was particularly interested in fossils. See his entry in the Dictionary of National Biography for more information.

[10] Jeremy Montagu is a professional musician and ethnomusicologist

[11] Raymond Robert Inskeep (1926-2003) Curator / Lecturer at the Pitt Rivers Museum from 1972 until his retirement in 1994.

[12] Elizabeth Edwards and Lynne Williamson were both members of the Museum's staff at the time, Elizabeth Edwards was the Balfour Librarian, responsible for the photographic collections, and Lynne Williamson worked in the collections management department.

[13] Mary Catherine Fagg (1915-), wife of Bernard Evelyn Buller Fagg, former PRM Curator (Director).

 Technologies & Materials