K. Pearson to W.M.F. Petrie, 17th June 1895.- External URL
- Correspondence Details
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Sent From (Definite): Karl PearsonSent To (Definite): Sir William Matthew Flinders PetrieDate: 17 Jun 1895
- Current Holder(s)
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Holder (Definite): Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL.
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Sent fromKarl Pearson
17 Jun 1895
Description:
‘My dear Sir,
I have little doubt that the Royal College of Surgeons would be only too glad to take the whole collection & would look well after it, which looking after might be further provided for by the Trust you suggest. I believe the British Museum (Natural History Department) would also undertake the care of the collection with alacrity.
While the College of Surgeons have the best collection in England, the Natural History Museum has the beginning of a collection of negroes & others. If you select either of these bodies as the recipients of what I should think the most valuable anthropological series in existence. I have no doubt they would be perfectly willing to clear out & transfer the collection in August or September.
As you know, I am keen only on certain skull measurements for comparative purposes. I feel I cannot go beyond those at present without opening up a vista of useless work, which I cannot undertake. Had I not had nine weeks illness, were I not still more or less in the Doctor’s hands, I would have given any merely mechanical aid in my power, but I am simply told that my future work depends on me getting away as soon as possible. If the skulls had been kept at the College in a year or so we might have got the whole series of measurements out of them, but it cannot, I fear, be done in a few weeks. To keep the skulls apart from the skeletons would be a great pity, but you conclude that it is impossible to keep the whole collection in the space at the College’s disposal. I should urge therefore the sending of the entire collection to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it will be well looked after and accessible to any one from the College, who desires to use it after August.
I am sending a line to the donor of £50 for the transit expenses to remind him that quarter day falls this week. I will tell him to send the cheque directly to you and you will I know realise that he gives the amount of interest in Egypt, and not from any personal relation to me.
Yours very truly,
Karl Pearson.’
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Sent toSir William Matthew Flinders Petrie
17 Jun 1895
Description:
‘My dear Sir,
I have little doubt that the Royal College of Surgeons would be only too glad to take the whole collection & would look well after it, which looking after might be further provided for by the Trust you suggest. I believe the British Museum (Natural History Department) would also undertake the care of the collection with alacrity.
While the College of Surgeons have the best collection in England, the Natural History Museum has the beginning of a collection of negroes & others. If you select either of these bodies as the recipients of what I should think the most valuable anthropological series in existence. I have no doubt they would be perfectly willing to clear out & transfer the collection in August or September.
As you know, I am keen only on certain skull measurements for comparative purposes. I feel I cannot go beyond those at present without opening up a vista of useless work, which I cannot undertake. Had I not had nine weeks illness, were I not still more or less in the Doctor’s hands, I would have given any merely mechanical aid in my power, but I am simply told that my future work depends on me getting away as soon as possible. If the skulls had been kept at the College in a year or so we might have got the whole series of measurements out of them, but it cannot, I fear, be done in a few weeks. To keep the skulls apart from the skeletons would be a great pity, but you conclude that it is impossible to keep the whole collection in the space at the College’s disposal. I should urge therefore the sending of the entire collection to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where it will be well looked after and accessible to any one from the College, who desires to use it after August.
I am sending a line to the donor of £50 for the transit expenses to remind him that quarter day falls this week. I will tell him to send the cheque directly to you and you will I know realise that he gives the amount of interest in Egypt, and not from any personal relation to me.
Yours very truly,
Karl Pearson.’
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