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1944.1.84.1

Sheet of paper with schemata on the subject of animism

1944.1.84.1

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Collection type
Object
Description
Sheet of paper with schemata on the subject of animism
Long description
Large sheet of paper featuring stencilled words and schemata on the subject of animism, titled 'Orders of Spiritual Beings: Diagram of Development', made to illustrate a lecture by E. B. Tylor
Cultural groups
English
Date / Period
Date made: Circa 1888-1898 Date made: Probably early 1895
Date collected
By 1917
Acquisition information
Donated: 1917 Found unentered: 01/1944
Materials and processes
Material Paper Plant, Material Pigment, Process Drawn
Object numbers
Accession number: 1944.1.84.1
Research and responses

This is a large sheet of paper featuring stencilled words and schemata on the subject of animism, titled 'ORDERS OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS: DIAGRAM OF DEVELOPMENT', understood to have been made to illustrate a lecture (or lectures) by Prof. Edward B. Tylor. [PG 05/03/2014]

The drawings in this particular series [1944.1.83, 1944.1.84 .1 - .5] are undated, but other drawings by Alfred Robinson in the wider series include dates from 1888 to 1898; those in this series are therefore assumed to have been made around the same time, i.e. circa 1888 to 1898. In fact, however, it possible to suggest a more exact dating for this series of items. It is recorded that E. B. Tyor delivered two lectures on 'Animism as shewn in the Religions of the Lower Races', at the Royal Institution in London on 28 March and 4 April 1895; and that in the second lecture were included sections on 'Tasmanian Animism' and 'The Classic or Graeco-Roman Stage of Animism' (among others): Barbara W. Freire-Marreco, 'A Bibliography of Edward Burnett-Tylor from 1861 to 1907', in H. Balfour et al, Anthropological Essays Presented to Edward Burnett Tylor in Honour of his 75th Birthday Oct. 2 1907 (Oxford, 1907), p.403. The existence of two schemata with the titles 'Tasmanian Animism' [1944.1.84 .5] and 'Graeco-Roman Animism' [1944.1.84 .4] strongly suggests, therefore, that this series of drawings [1944.1.83, 1944.1.84 .1 - .5] was made in the spring of 1895 for the specific purpose of illustrating Tylor's lectures at the Royal Institution. (See Related Documents File.) [PG 05/03/2014]

Search terms: Picture and Graphic Art, Drawing

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