| Code | PX202 |
| Dates | 1868-1942 |
| Person Name | Pycraft; William Plane (1868-1942); Osteologist |
| Surname | Pycraft |
| Forenames | William Plane |
| Epithet | Osteologist |
| Activity | Museum Staff. Pycraft was a pupil of the curator of Leicester Museum. From 1892 to 1898 he was Assistant to E.Ray Lankester, Linacre Professor at Oxford, and came to London as Assistant to Lankester on his appointment to the Directorship of the Natural History Museum. In 1901 Pycraft arranged and labelled the bird skeleton collection and identified accessions to the spirit collection (Report on Bird Room in Ibis 1901). In 1907 he was appointed Assistant in the Zoological Department and placed in charge of the osteological collections. By 1922 he is titled Assistant Keeper. Retired Jan 13 1933. Tring correspondent
Published: 23 May 1942
Mr. W. P. Pycraft
A. S. WOODWARD
Nature volume 149, page575 (1942)
WILLIAM PLANE PYCRAFT, who died on May 1, was a well-known ornithologist and comparative anatomist. He was born at Great Yarmouth in 1868 and while a schoolboy was attracted to natural history by the wild life of the Norfolk Broads. He became a keen observer of all living things, but devoted himself specially to birds. After leaving school, he desired to follow natural history as a profession, and started as a private pupil with the curator of the Leicester Museum, where he learned the art of preserving and preparing animals for study and exhibition. In 1892 he was introduced to Prof, (afterwards Sir) Ray Lankester, who invited him to be his assistant in making preparations for the Oxford University Museum. While thus occupied he attended Lankester's lectures and demonstrations, and thus extended his outlook by acquiring a good knowledge of the structures and relationships of animals. When Lankester was appointed director of the British Museum (Natural History) in 1898, Pycraft accompanied him to London and became his temporary assistant there. Soon afterwards he joined the permanent staff of the Zoological Department of the Museum, where he remained as an assistant until his retirement in 1933. He spent his later life at Longcross near Chertsey, Surrey, in surroundings where he could continue the field observations which he had begun in early youth.
Obituary: Ibis 1943: 109-110 & Auk 1943: 312. |
| RefNo | Title |
| DF/ZOO/200/58/36 | Pycraft, William Plane (Birchington on Sea) |
| DF/PUB/516/7/15 | Guide to the British vertebrates exhibited in the Department of Zoology |
| DF/ZOO/230/1/163-164 | Pycraft, W P |
| DF/PAL/140/1 | Pycraft, William: Correspondence and Papers |
| DF/TM/1/49/21 | Correspondence G: Goodfellow |
| DF/ZOO/200/62/45 | Pycraft, William Plane (Birchington on Sea) |
| DF/PAL/143/49 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Zulu Kaffir. [female]' |
| DF/TM/1/65/20 | Correspondence P-Q: Prout; Pycraft; Quaritch |
| DF/ZOO/232/5/13/13/17 | Pycraft, W.P. |
| DF/PAL/143/50 | Portrait photograph [labelled 'Zulu'] |
| DF/PAL/143/31 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Low Cast Somali, or Sab. [male]. (Lord Delamere's Expedition)' |
| DF/PAL/143/68 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Zulu. S. Africa [female]' |
| DF/PAL/109/42 | 'Rhodesian Man and Associated Remains' by W P Pycraft and others: artwork for figure 20 by A K Maxwell |
| DF/PAL/143/32 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Arab [female]' |
| DF/ZOO/230/2/284 | Pycraft, W P |
| DF/ZOO/234/33 | Films and photography |
| DF/PAL/143/28 | Photograph of mummified man |
| DF/PAL/143/72 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Hindu, India (male)' |
| DF/PAL/143/25 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Copt. Egypt. [male].' |
| DF/ZOO/208/18 | Staff file: Pycraft, William Plane |
| DF/TR/1/1/25/375 | Pycraft, W P |
| DF/TR/1/1/28/471 | Pycraft, [William] [Plane] |
| DF/ZOO/200/72/40 | Pycraft, W D |
| DF/PAL/143/10 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Uganda Negro. Uganda, Central Africa [female]', signed 'P.E.' [Peter Entwistle of the Liverpool Museum] |
| DF/PAL/143/41 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Soudanese male' |
| DF/TR/1/1/24/358 | Pycraft, [William] [Plane] |
| DF/PAL/143/40 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Sudani. Eastern Sudan [female]'. |
| DF/PAL/143/30 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Ajuran Somali. Boran Galla. Le District Somaliland. (Lord Delamere's Expedition' |
| DF/ZOO/234 | Osteology Section Subject files |
| DF/PH/2/6/7/2 | Staff Group Photograph: Zoology Department |
| DF/PH/2/1/4/1 | Staff Group Photograph: 'The Establishment' (Full Staff Photograph) |
| DF/TM/1/45/16 | Correspondence P: Pycraft |
| DF/TM/1/51/30 | Correspondence P: Purpus; Purrett; Pycraft |
| DF/TM/1/37/21 | Correspondence P: Pritchard & Co; Procter Bros; Pulman; Pycraft; Pylecote |
| DF/PAL/143/14 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Negro (Albert Jackson)' |
| DF/PAL/140/1/2 | Correspondence, arranged alphabetically |
| DF/PAL/143/43 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Bedouin Chief' |
| DF/PAL/143/39 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Sudanese male' |
| DF/PAL/143/51 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Zulu. South Africa [male]' |
| DF/PAL/143/37 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Soudanese man Galeih Tribe' |
| DF/PAL/143/70 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Native of Rutmagery, 140 miles south of Bombay, male, age 24' |
| DF/PAL/143/29 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Somali of Dogodi Tribe. Somaliland. [male]. (Lord Delamere's Expedition' |
| DF/PAL/140/1/3 | Letters relating to anthropological photographs |
| DF/ADM/1000/99 | Reports and letters 1914 |
| DF/PAL/143/44 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Ketchewayo - Zulu King' |
| DF/PAL/140/1/1 | Correspondence and papers |
| DF/PAL/140 | Anthropology Sub-Department Staff Correspondence and Papers |
| DF/PAL/143/76 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Kandeh woman, Ceylon' |
| DF/PAL/143/71 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Bhootia woman, Darjeeling' |
| DF/PAL/143/42 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Arab woman' |
| DF/PAL/143/34 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Bedouin Arab. Mount Sinai. [male]' |
| DF/PAL/143/55 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Basuto. Basutoland, S. Africa' |
| DF/PAL/143/38 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Sudani. Egyptian Sudan. [female]' |
| DF/PAL/143/8 | Portrait photograph labelled 'Negrillo or Pigmy. Mt. Pisgah, Africa [female]' |
| DF/PAL/143 | Anthropology Sub-Department: Photographic Collection |
| DF/PAL/140/1/2/1 | Pycraft, W P, Correspondence and Papers A-B |