Guide to the Correspondence of Albert S. Meek (as filmed by the AJCP), 1894-1931
Filter Online content
Online content
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- M2512
- Creator:
- Meek, Albert Stewart
- Extent:
- 4 items
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for reference.
Background
- Content Summary:
- Letters 1894-1931 from Meek to Dr Ernsk Hartert, H.E. Karl Jordan and Lord Rothschild. Subjects include Meek's collecting activities particularly in Trobriand Islands, Woodlark Island, Bougainville, Dutch New Guinea, Goodenough Island, Rook Island and New Hanover. There are also references to the Goodfellow Expedition and death of G.C. Eichhorn.
- Biographical / Historical:
-
Albert Stewart Meek (1871-1943), the son of a trader in natural history specimens, was born in London. In 1890 he went to Queensland and spent some time at Coomooboolaroo, a cattle station near Duaringa. Its owner, George Barnard (d. 1894), had built a private museum to house his extensive collection of insects and birds' eggs. In 1894 Meek was engaged by Walter Rothschild to collect birds and insects for his museum at Tring. For nearly twenty years he led a series of collecting expeditions to British, German and Dutch New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He was the author of A naturalist in Cannibal Land (1913). He continued to correspond with the Tring Museum in later years and helped to organise the expeditions led by Albert Eichhorn to New Guinea and New Britain in 1923-26. (Lionel) Walter Rothschild (1868-1937), 2nd Baron Rothschild (succeeded 1915), was born in London. He was mainly educated at home and was then a student at Bonn University and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He joined the family bank of N.M. Rothschild Sons, but his main interests were scientific. He began collecting insects as a schoolboy and later widened his collecting to birds and animals. His collections were stored at his father's estate at Tring, Buckinghamshire, where a public museum was opened in 1892. He gave up his work in the City in 1908 and concentrated on his scientific activities. He was a trustee of the British Museum, a fellow of the Royal Society, and an honorary member of many important societies of entomology, ornithology and botany. He was a member of the House of Commons from 1898 to 1910.Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (1859-1933) was born at Hamburg and later lived in East Prussia. He began writing about his ornithological discoveries in 1880. Between 1885 and 1891 he went on collecting expeditions in West Africa, Sumatra, the Straits Settlements, India and the West Indies. He moved to England in 1891 and in the following year he was appointed by Lionel Rothschild as the director of the museum at Tring. He held the position until 1930. He wrote numerous papers for the museum's journal, Novitates Zoologicae and a monumental work, Die Vögel der paläarktischen Fauna (1903-22). He was president of the International Ornithological Congress in 1926. His last years were spent in Berlin. (Heinrich Ernst) Karl Jordan (1861-1959) was born at Almstedt, near Hanover, and attended the University of Gottinngen, where he studied zoology and botany. In 1893 he was engaged by Lionel Rothschild as the curator of his insect collections kept at the museum at Tring. He held the position until 1930 and then succeeded Ernst Hartert as director of the museum. He retired in 1939. Jordan was a prolific writer, producing hundreds of scientific papers. He founded the International Congress of Entomologists in 1910 and was its permanent secretary until 1948. He was president of the Entomological Society of London in 1929-30.Albert Frederic Eichhorn (d. 1930), who was the brother-in-law of Albert Meek, was born at Cooktown, Queensland. Between 1898 and 1913 he was a member of several of Meek's expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, sometimes accompanied by his brother George Eichhorn. In 1918 they explored the Hydrographer Range in New Guinea, collecting for Walter Rothschild. Between 1923 and 1926 Eichhorn led expeditions to New Guinea, New Britain and the Bismarck Archipelago.
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Available for Access.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
- Preferred citation:
-
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: