• publications
  • projects

Tag Archives: Cambridge University Library

New history of Anglo-Irish anthropology marks the centenary of the Haddon Library in Cambridge

Comments Off on New history of Anglo-Irish anthropology marks the centenary of the Haddon Library in Cambridge
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on September 25, 2020 – 9:48 am
Filed under Curatorial Projects, History of Anthropology

old tropes & new histories: an “Irish” reading of the Haddon Papers

is the theme of a 15 minute presentation by Dr Ciarán Walsh marking the centenary of the establishment of the Haddon Library. The event is part of Cambridge University’s Alumni Festival 2020 and is especially significant given that Walsh’s groundbreaking study of Haddon’s role in anglo-Irish anthropology started at the Alumni Festival in 2013.

The Irish section of the Haddon Library in 2013

Aidan Baker, the Haddon Librarian, invited Walsh to curate an exhibition of photographs from the Irish Ethnographic Survey as part of Alumni Festival 2013. The photo above captures the low level of interest in Ireland at the time, but, in preparation for the opening, Aidan searched the “locked room” for Haddon’s personal copy of the seminal “Ethnography of the Aran Islands, County Galway”, which the Royal Irish Academy published in 1893. For some reason Haddon didn’t keep a copy, but Aidan found his file on the Aran Islands, which had been ‘missing’ for a century or so.  

Aidan Baker, Haddon Librarian, with Haddon’s file on the Aran Islands, which was separated from the main body of his papers in 1913 and found in the Haddon Library in 2013.

That file contained ten pages from a journal that Haddon kept during his first visit to the islands in 1890, a manuscript of a commentary for the ethnographic slideshow that he performed on his return to Dublin, a sketchbook, photographic plates from “Ethnography of the Aran Islands, County Galway,” a map and other documents.

This triggered a sustained reading of the Irish component of the Haddon Papers in Cambridge University Library, guided initially by Dr John Pickles. That began in 2014 and culminated in a radical review of Haddon’s contribution to the development of Anglo-Irish anthropology in the 1890s: a major piece of doctoral research (funded by the Irish Research Council) that has just been completed.,

A small part of that research will be presented in this exploration of new facets of the life and career of Alfred Cord Haddon:

https://www.alumni.cam.ac.uk/festival/events/the-haddon-library-at-100-–-new-facets-of-alfred-haddon

Research in Cambridge sheds new light on Haddon and his role in the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903

Comments Off on Research in Cambridge sheds new light on Haddon and his role in the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903
Posted by Ciaran Walsh on May 17, 2014 – 1:21 pm
Filed under Anthropology, Heritage, Photography, Research

Ciaran Walsh researching the Haddon papers in Cambridge University Library. The photograph shows freelance curator Ciarán Walsh at work in the Manuscripts Room in the Library. He is surrounded by documents from one of the files containing uncatalogued material dating form the early 1890s when Haddon was active in the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903, the subject of the 'Irish Headhunter' project curated by Ciarán Walsh in 2012/3. He is trying to piece together the archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey as part of a research project called 'Haddon in Ireland.' a project being developed in association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge and NationalUniversity of Ireland Maynooth. The research was funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland.
Ciarán Walsh at work in the Manuscripts Room in the Library. He is surrounded by documents from one of the files containing uncatalogued material dating form the early 1890s when Haddon was active in the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903.

'Haddon in Ireland.&#039 is a research project that is trying to piece together the archive of the Irish Ethnographic Survey 1891-1903, a project being developed in association with the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge and National University of Ireland Maynooth. The initial research in Cambridge has been funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland.http://rpk-tramplin.ru

Walsh recently spent ten days going through uncatalogued material relating relating to the Survey in the photographic collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as well as the manuscripts in Cambridge University. Working closely with Dr. Jocelyne Dudding (Manager of the photographic collection), Aidan Baker (Haddon Librarian) and John Pickles (former Haddon Librarian) Walsh discovered a lot of material – photographs and manuscripts – that shed a lot of light on the administration of the survey and the early development of ethnology in Ireland in the late 1880s and the early 1890s.

The results will feature strongly in a panel on Haddon and the Survey which has been organised by Walsh, Dudding and Dr. Mark Maguire of NUI Maynooth as part of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s conference on Photography and Anthropology which is taking place at the end of May.

  •  

     

    HOME

     

    Anthropo lab 2016 P1180364 600 dpi

     

     

  • News

    • TCD to announce return of ancestral remains to Inishbofin
    • Blogging resumes on Ballymaclinton: An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley.
    • Is the TCD statement on the stolen skulls of Inishbofin a missed opportunity?
    • Inishbofin Islanders demand repatriation of remains held in TCD
    • The Ann Doherty Collection goes on show
  •  

     

    COMMENT | BLOG

     

    ballymac-banner1 400

  • ABOUT

     

    ciaran ambrotype2IMG_0001

     

     

  • CONTACT

     

    curator.ie@gmail.com

     

    +353872370846

     

    Booleenshare

    Ballyheigue

    Tralee

    Co Kerry

    Ireland

     

     




Latest News



TCD to announce return of ancestral remains to Inishbofin



Blogging resumes on Ballymaclinton: An Irish giant, 24 stolen skulls, one colonial legacies project and a slave owner named Berkeley.



Is the TCD statement on the stolen skulls of Inishbofin a missed opportunity?



www.curator.ie || Booleenshare, Co. Kerry, Ireland || web design by Kerrynet Solutions