Guide to the Papers of Ernest William Pearson Chinnery, 1897-1971

Summary

Collection number:

MS 766

Creator:

Ernest William Pearson Chinnery

Extent:

8.43 metres and (61 boxes, 8 folio items)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Ernest William Pearson Chinnery, National Library of Australia, MS 766, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference. Not for loan.

Background

Content Summary:

The papers comprise official, personal and academic correspondence, diaries, photographs, patrol reports, field notebooks, conference papers, lectures, broadcasts, articles, anthropological writings and research material, translations of German and French texts, administration handbooks and ordinances, publications on anthropology, language and education, United Nations reports and publications and other papers.

The papers relate to Chinnery's career in the territories of Papua and New Guinea as a Patrol Officer, Government Anthropologist, and Director of the Department of District Services and Native Affairs, and a Director of Native Affairs and Commonwealth Advisor on Native Affairs in Australia. There are also papers relating to Chinnery's association with the Far Eastern Liaison Office during World War II, the South Seas Commission Conference (1947), United Nations missions to Africa, and all aspects of Papua New Guinea, including history, exploration, anthropology, genealogy, language, education, health, missions, crimes and discipline, native rights, mining, trade and pre-war, wartime and post-war administration.

Among the correspondents are many notable anthropologists and administrators such as Sir Staniforth Smith, John Taylor, C.L.A. Abbott, Bill Harney, A.P. Elkin, Theodor Strehlow, Camilla Wedgwood, Olive Pink, Sir Baldwin Spencer, A.C. Haddon and Margaret Mead.

Biographical Note:

Date	Event
1887	Born 5 November at Waterloo, Victoria.
1909	Government Clerk, Port Moresby.
1910	Patrol Officer, Mambare Division, Papua; then Kumusi Division for three years.
1917-1919	Observer in the Australian Flying Corps.
1919	Married Sarah J. Neill in Aylesbury, England.
1920	Cuthbert Peek Award, Royal Geographical Society.
1921-1924	Labour Adviser, New Guinea Copper Mines Ltd.
1924-1932	Government Anthropologist, New Guinea.
1930	Rockefeller Fellow, in United States and Europe; represented Australia at Permanent Mandates Commission in Geneva.
1932-1938	Director, Department of District Services and Native Affairs, New Guinea.
1934	Represented Australia at Permanent Mandates Commission in Geneva.
1937-1947	Commonwealth Adviser on Native Affairs.
1938-1946	Director, Native Affairs Branch, Northern Territory.
1947	Australian adviser, United Nations Trusteeship Council.
1948	United Nations visiting mission to East Africa.
1972	Died 17 December at Prahran, Victoria.

Provenance:

The Chinnery Papers were purchased from Chinnery's daughters in 1994 and 1997. One of Chinnery's daughters, Mrs Sheila Waters, extensively listed the papers, describing their order before they were transferred to the Library. These lists, annotated with citation numbers for the present arrangement, are located in box 56. Some lists were also interspersed with the papers.

Arrangement:

The series have been arranged broadly into five sections: personal correspondence and photographs (Series 1-2); material arising directly from Chinnery's various positions (Series 3-14); anthropological material (Series 15-22); publications (Series 23-28) and family letters, diaries and notebooks (Series 29-30). The anthropological material may be seen as subsets of the contemporaneous administrative material.

Related

Separated Material:

Maps have been transferred to Map Collection (list available). Duplicate negatives of the Chinnery photographs are held in the PictURES Collection.

Indexed terms

Names:

Ernest William Pearson Chinnery

Conditions Governing Access:

Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn461080).

Conditions Governing Use:

Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.

Preferred citation:

Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of Ernest William Pearson Chinnery, National Library of Australia, MS 766, [box number and series and/or file number]'.

Location of this collection:

National Library of Australia

Parkes Place

Canberra ACT 2600, Australia

Contact:

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