| Content Warning | A review of the Archive catalogue and documents within the Archive relating to Anthropology identified that some contain information that may be offensive or distressing. This includes racist language, and descriptions of historical collecting and research methods. The Museum does not condone unacceptable language and practices of the past, but has not redacted these records to maintain authenticity and facilitate discovery of records for research, including study of the history of science and museums |
| AdminHistory | Anthropology was first studied within the Osteology Section of the Department of Zoology, and DF140/1-4 date from that period. William Plane Pycraft (1868-1942) was Head of the Section from 1907 until his retirement in 1932, when he was succeeded by Francis Charles Fraser (1903-1978). In 1949 it was decided to appoint an anthropologist to take charge of both the recent and fossil collections. No suitable external candidate was found, and in 1953 Kenneth Page Oakley (1911-1981), a member of the Department of Geology with responsibility for fossil man and some invertebrate groups, was given the post. The new Anthropology Section spanned the departments of Zoology and Geology, though Oakley himself remained in Geology. In 1959 the Section was given the status of a sub-department, and in 1960 it was placed within the Department of Palaeontology, and the collection of recent anthropological specimens transferred accordingly. The staff of the Sub-Department consisted of Oakley, Mrs Madeleine Smith, Miss Rosemary Powers, and three part-time workers.
The work of the Sub-Department was extended in 1972 when a Serology Unit was set up to investigate the biology of living populations using serological and biochemical variation. Donald Tills (1934-1993) was appointed as Head of the Section, having previously been deputy to Dr A E Mourant at the Serological Population Genetics Laboratory, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London. |