WCP6068

Letter (WCP6068.7018)

[1]1

From the CURATOR, PITT RIVERS MUSEUM

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

2 Dec[ember] 1947.

Dear Mr. Wallace,

I should consider it an honour to be able to choose specimens from the collection of A[lfred]. R[ussel]. Wallace, especially as the date seems to show that they would have been personally chosen by J. W. Powell2 at the same time that he sent gifts to Moseley3 of the "Challenger"4 and to Tylor5. Apart from the fact that these arrowheads are definitely labelled and can serve as types for comparison, they have great historical interest in a Museum with our associations. Sir Francis Knowles6 who spent years in America studying the Indians, will make a selection, and we can return the others to you. No doubt other museums, such as the museum of Archaeology and Ethnology [sic] at Cambridge7, would be glad of an opportunity to make a selection.

Yours sincerely, | T. K. Penniman. [signature]

T. K. Penniman.

W. G. Wallace, Esq[uire].,

61, East Avenue,

Bournemouth.

Dec[ember] 4. Sent p[ac]k[e]t. of arrowheads mentioned offered Grand Cañon book & atlas8 & also S[outh]. A[merican]. Indian-Andean Civil[isatio]n11 @ 21/-9 also offered moccasins10,11

1
The letter is typewritten and signed in ink. The page is numbered [WP16/2/45] in pencil in the top RH corner. The word "Ans[were]d." is written in pencil across the top LH corner of the page.
2
Powell, John Wesley (1834-1902) U.S. soldier, geologist, and explorer of the American West. The Powell Geographic Expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1869 included the first known passage by Europeans through the Grand Canyon. He was the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey and first director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution.
3
Moseley, Henry Nottidge (1844-1891) naturalist and member of the Challenger expedition 1872-1876 (see Endnote 5).
4
H.M.S. Challenger was leased from the Royal Navy by the Royal Society for an expedition led by Charles Wyville Thomson to survey and explore the world’s oceans. The Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species.
5
Tylor, Edward Burnett (1832-1917) English anthropologist, the founder of cultural (social) anthropology. He believed that there was a functional basis for the development of society and religion, which he determined was universal.
6
Knowles, Francis Howe Seymour, 5th Baronet (1886-1953) English anthropologist. At the Pitt Rivers Museum he studied methods used by Stone Age peoples in making their tools and weapons and developed skills in the manufacture of stone tools for experimental archaeology. His book The Stone-Worker’s Progress (1953) summarized this research.
7
Founded in 1884 as the Museum of General and Local Archaeology, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge houses the University's collections of local antiquities, together with archaeological and ethnographic artefacts from around the world.
8
Dutton, C. E. (1882) Tertiary history of the Grand Cañon district with Atlas. United States Geological Survey, Washington, Government Printing Office. (See WCP6073).
9
Twenty-one shillings (£1.05).
10
Two pairs of small Indian moccasins which ARW purchased in Denver, Colorado in 1897 for the recipient and his sister Violet (see WCP 6069).
11
Annotation in pencil in the hand of the recipient.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6068.7018)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP6068,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6068