Person
Thorpe, William Walford (1879 - 1932)
- Born
- 24 March 1879
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Died
- 2 September 1932
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Anthropologist and Ethnologist
Summary
William Thorpe, after a varied employment record that included copper smithing and wattle stripping, joined the staff of the Australian Museum in 1899 as a labourer, night watchman and mechanical assistant. In 1900 he became assistant to the museum's Director, Robert Etheridge. Thorpe was appointed in 1908 as the Museum's Ethnologist, a field in which he was self-taught and in which he developed an unrivalled knowledge of the material culture of the indigenous people of Australia and the nearby Melanesian islands. He published a number of papers in scientific journals. In 1929 he travelled to Auckland, New Zealand, as consultant to the War Memorial Museum in the installation of their displays. Thorpe was also knowledgeable in numismatics. In 1928 he helped found the Anthropological Society of New South Wales and was joint editor of its magazine, Mankind, from 1931. The Australian Museum holds over 570 artefacts collected by Thorpe.
Details
Chronology
- 1898
- Career event - Joined the Australian Museum
- 1900 - 1908
- Career position - Assistant of Robert Etheridge, Australian Museum
- 1908 - 1932
- Career position - Ethnologist, Australian Museum
- 1928
- Career position - Co-founder, Anthropological Society of New South Wales
- 1928 - 1932
- Career position - Secretary, Anthropological Society of New South Wales
- 1931 - 1932
- Career position - Joint editor, Mankind
Related entries
Colleague
Archival resources
John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland
- William Walford Thorpe - Records, 1890 - 1899, OM67-22; John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland. Details
Published resources
Books
- McCarthy, F. D., New South Wales Aboriginal place names and euphonious words, with their meanings (Sydney: Government Printer, 1963), 32 pp. Details
- Thorpe, W. W., List of New South Wales Aboriginal words and their meanings; with some well-known place names (Sydney: Australian Museum, 1921), 8 pp. Details
Journal Articles
- A., C. [ie Anderson, Charles], 'Biographical notice of W. W. Thorpe', Australian Museum magazine, 4 (12) (1932), 416-7. Details
- Anon, 'William Walford Thorpe, obiit 2nd Sept., 1932', Mankind, 1 (6) (1932), 134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1932.tb00023.x. Details
- Roughley, Essie, 'The closing chapter of Mr. Thorpe's life', Mankind, 1 (6) (1932), 134-5. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1932.tb0002. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q19059543. Details
- 'Thorpe, W W (-19320902)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-607386. Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education