Lady scientist, technological treasures and the making of a discipline

Abstract

Abstract The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford is known for its abundant ethnographic and archaeological collections and typological displays. Conceived as an educational museum serving the purposes of evolutionist anthropology and its comparative practice, the collections grew considerably in size and geographical scope during Henry Balfour’s curatorship (1893–1939). The museum’s Siberian collection is almost entirely made up of objects from a single expedition to the Yenisei valley in 1914–15, led by a recent graduate from the University of Oxford Diploma in Anthropology, Maria Antonina Czaplicka (1884–1921). This article follows the journey of the making of this collection, starting from the context of the newly established diploma, and moving through international networks of museum professionals, into the Illimpei tundra, and back to what is now its institutional home in Oxford. Examining the practices of an early professionally trained anthropologist, the article offers novel insights into the complex entanglement of museum collecting and early twentieth-century anthropological teaching and research.