Walter Baldwin Spencer
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Sir Baldwin Spencer | |
---|---|
Born | 23 June 1860 Stretford, Lancashire |
Died | 14 July 1929 Hoste Island, Chile | (aged 69)
Nationality | British |
Awards | Clarke Medal (1923) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Anthropologist |
Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer
Early life and education
Spencer was born on 23 June 1860 in Stretford, Lancashire, England to Martha (née Circuit) and Rueben Spencer.[1] He was educated at Old Trafford school and Manchester School of Art, where he received training in drawing.[1][3]
In 1879, Spencer began study at
As a graduate, Spencer worked as a teaching assistant to his former professor Henry Nottidge Moseley, where he aided in the transferral of General Pitt-Rivers's collection of anthropological artefacts from the South Kensington Museum to Oxford University, which had built a museum to house it.[1][3][5] He obtained a fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford in 1886.[1]
Career
Move to Melbourne
Having already contributed various papers to scientific journals, one of which, on the
Spencer arrived in Australia in March of that year and set about organising his new school (the chair had just been founded), successfully receiving a building grant of £8000 to develop new lecture rooms and laboratories. He showed much capability as a lecturer and organiser, and also took a full part in the general activities of the university. His interests were not confined to his university duties; he took a leading part in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, and the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, and did valuable work for those bodies.
Expeditions and museum work
In 1894 a new field was opened up for Spencer when he joined the
Spencer was recruited as science writer for the Australasian by its editor, David Watterston.[7]
Spencer had been appointed a trustee of the public library in 1895. When Sir Frederick McCoy died in May 1899, Spencer became honorary director of the national museum. He was to do an enormous amount of work in the following years, and to present to the museum many valuable collections of sacred and ceremonial Aboriginal objects collected during his journeys. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, London.
In 1900 and in 1901 he spent 12 months in the field with Gillen going from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then eastward to Borraloola on the Gulf of Carpentaria. They were assisted with their work by the artist and interpreter known to Europeans as Jim Kite, Erlikilyika, who lived at Charlotte Waters telegraph station, where Gillen had previously spent some years.[8] Their experiences and studies formed the basis of the next book, The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, which appeared in 1904, dedicated to David Syme, who had given £1000 towards the cost of the expedition. Patrick ("Pado") Byrne, telegraph master at Charlotte Waters, corresponded with Spencer for many years and collected biological specimens. Spencer named a small marsupial known locally as the kowari in recognition of Byrne's contribution as Dasyuroides byrnei.[9]
In 1904, Spencer became president of the professorial board, an office he was to hold for seven years. There was then no paid
In 1914 Spencer was honorary secretary for the meeting of the
Clashes with Carl Strehlow
Spencer held very different views on the
A controversy arose in anthropological circles, after Spencer wrote "angry and to some degree defamatory letters" to
From 1912 to 1922, Spencer attempted to shut down Strehlow's Hermannsburg Mission. In his 1913 report as Special Commissioner and Chief Protector, Spencer proposed taking all Aboriginal children away from their parents and setting up reserves where the children would be denied any contact with their parents, be prevented from speaking their languages and made incapable of living in the bush. While recognising that "this will undoubtedly be a difficult matter to accomplish and will involve some amount of hardship so far as the parents are concerned", Spencer justified it on the grounds that "once the children have grown to a certain age and have become accustomed to camp life with its degrading environment and endless roaming about in the bush, it is almost useless to try and reclaim them".[15] So he thought it essential to take them away, for "then they will gradually lose the longing for a nomad life and will in fact become incapable of securing their living in the bush". He was particularly keen to make sure that "half-caste" children had no contact with camp life. Hermannsburg was to be taken away from the Lutherans and "serve as a reserve for the remnants of the southern central tribes where they can, under proper and competent control, be trained to habits of industry".[16] However, when the Administrator of the Northern Territory, John A. Gilruth, came down from Darwin in 1913 to see whether these negative reports were true, he was impressed with what he saw and decided that the Strehlows and the mission should remain.
Further travels
Spencer paid two more visits to the centre of Australia, one in 1923 with
Personal life
Spencer married Mary Elizabeth ('Lillie') Bowman in January 1887.[1] The couple had two daughters, and a son who died in infancy.[1]
Death
Spencer died from heart failure on 14 July 1929 during an expedition to Tierra del Fuego, Chile/Argentina.[17] The events leading to his death are recorded in Spencer's own journal entries, and that of his research assistant Jean Hamilton.[17] He was buried in Magallanes (Punta Arenas), Chile.[18]
Legacy
In 2009, an Australian Research Council project was established with the aim of aggregating and digitising the original Spencer and Gillen collection.[19]
The Baldwin Spencer Building at the University of Melbourne was built in 1888 and named for Spencer in 1920. it was listed on the Victorian Heritage Register on 24 June 1992.[20]
In 1976, Australia Post issued a postage stamp bearing Spencer's portrait.
Spencer is commemorated in the scientific names of two species of Australian lizards: Selected works
References
Further reading
External links