Mountford, Charles Pearcy (1890 - 1976)

Summary

Charles Mountford was Honorary Assistant in Ethnology from 1935 at the South Australian Museum and Acting Ethnologist in 1938. He joined the Postmaster-General's Department in Adelaide as an engineer/mechanic in 1913 and in 1920 he was posted to Darwin. This was the catalyst for his interest in all things Aboriginal. Mountford became a recognised expert in the area publishing at least 40 scientific papers and a multitude of books on Aboriginal art, custom and culture. From 1935 until 1963 he participated in or organised numerous ethnological expeditions across Australia and received many high accolades and awards for his research, including two honorary doctorates and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). In 1948 he was leader of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, an international collaboration between as and, from the United States, the Smithsonian Institution and the National geographic magazine.

Details

Chronology

1909 - c. 1911

Career position - Tram conductor in Adelaide

1909 - c. 1911

Education - Correspondence courses in mechanics and engineering, South Australian School of Mines and Industries

1913 - 1920

Career position - Electrical Mechanic at the Postmaster-General's Department

1920 - c. 1924

Career position - Senior Mechanic with the Postmaster-General's Department at the Darwin Post Office

c. 1924 -

Career position - Returned to the Postmaster-General's Department in Adelaide

1926 - ?

Career position - Member of Council, Anthropological Society of South Australia

1926 - 1976

Career position - Foundation Member, Anthropological Society of South Australia

1935

Career position - Secretary of a board of inquiry to investigate allegations of ill-treatment of Aborigines in the Northern Territory

1935

Career position - Ethnologist, University of Adelaide anthropological expedition to the Warburton Range, Western Australia, with Norman Tindale and C. J. Hackett

1935 - 1937

Career position - Honorary Assistant in Ethnology, South Australian Institute

1937

Career position - Ethnologist, University of Adelaide anthropological expedition to the Nepabunna Mission in Flinders Ranges, South Australia

1938 - 1939

Career position - Acting Ethnologist, South Australian Institute

1940

Career position - Expedition from Ernabella to Ayers Rock to examine the art of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankuntjatjara (four months)

1945

Career event - Lecture tour of the U.S.A., for Australian Director-General of Information

1945

Award - Australian Natural History Medallion, Field Naturalist Club of Victoria

1946

Career event - Lecture tour of the U.S.A., for Australian Director-General of Information

February 1948 - November 1948

Career position - Leader, American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land

1949

Award - Franklin L. Burr award, National Geographic Society

1951

Career position - Ethnologist, University of Adelaide expedition to Yuendumu, Northern Territory

1954

Career position - Expedition to the Northern Territory and Melville Island, with Howell Walker

1955

Award - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)

1955

Award - John Lewis Gold Medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch

1955

Career position - Thomson gold medal, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland branch

1963

Career position - Expedition to Port Hedland, Western Australia

1964

Career position - Expedition to the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland

1964

Education - Master of Arts (MA), University of Adelaide

1971

Award - Sir Joseph Verco medal, Royal Society of South Australia

1973

Award - Doctor of Letters (LittD), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1976

Education - Doctor of Letters (LittD), honoris causa, University of Adelaide

Related entries

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Charles Pearcy Mountford - Records, 1960, DeB 42; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details
• Charles Pearcy Mountford - Records, 28 October 1966, DeB 189; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Charles Pearcy Mountford - Records, 1907 - 1976, PRG 1218; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details

Books

• Lamshed, Max, Monty: a biography of C.P. Mountford (Adelaide: Rigby, 1972), 222 pp. Details
• McKenna, Mark, Return to Uluru: a killing; a hidden history: a story that goes to the heart of the nation (Carlton, Vic.: Black Inc., 2021), 256 pp. Member, Commonwealth Board of Enquiry 1935 into the death of Yokununna at Uluru; pages 40, 87-99, 104, 106, 135, 140, 143. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., Brown men and red sand : journeyings in wild Australia (Mel;bourne: Robertson and Mullens, 1948), 182 pp. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., Nomads of the Australian desert (Adelaide: Rigby, 1976), 628 pp. Details
• Mountford, Charles Pearcy, Australian tree portraits (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1956), 69 pp. Details
• Thomas, Martin, Clever men: how worlds collided on the scientific expedition to Arnhem Land of 1948 (Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2025), 452 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Antons, Christoph, 'Foster v Mountford: cultural confidentiality in a changing Australia' in Landmarks in Australian intellectual property law, A. T.. Kenyon, M. A. T. Kenyon, M. Richardson & S. Ricketson, ed. (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 110-25. Details
• Chapman, Denise; and Russell, Suzy, 'The responsibilities of leadership: the records of Charles Mountford' in Exploring the legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Thomas, Martin and Neale, Margot, eds (Canberra: ANU Press, 2011), pp. 253-69, https://doi.org/10.22459/ELALE.06.2011.13. Details
• Clarke, Anne; Kay, Sally K.; Frederick, Ursula K.; and Johnston, Iain G., 'Style and substance: McCarthy versus Mountford and the emergence of an archaeology of rock art 1948 - 1960' in Histories of Australian rock art research, Taçon, Paul C.; May, Sally K.; Frederick, Ursula K.; and McDonald, Jo, eds (Canberra: ANU Press, 2022), pp. 11-25. Details
• Forte, M., 'Dr C. P. Mountford' in Anthropology in Australia: proceedings of a seminar Saturday 26 June 1976, Lawton, G. H. [and others], ed. (Anthropological Society of South Australia, 1979), pp. 39-48. Details
• Jones, Philip, 'Mountford, Charles Pearcy (1890-1976), anthropologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), pp. 431-433. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mountford-charles-pearcy-11188. Details
• Jones, Philip, 'Inside Mountford's tent: paint, politics and paperwork' in Exploring the legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Thomas, Martin and Neale, Margot, eds (Canberra: ANU Press, 2011), pp. 33-54, https://doi.org/10.22459/ELALE.06.2011.02. Details
• May, Sally, 'The Art of Collecting: Charles Pearcy Mountford' in The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, Peterson, Nicolas, Allen, Lindy and Hamby, Louise, eds (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 2008), pp. 446-66. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'The art of Groote Eyland' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. 19-106. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'The art of Yirrkalla' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. 267-411. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'Carved and painted figures' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. 415-75. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'Astronomy' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. 479-508. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'The story of the Expedition' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. xxi-xxx. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'The art of Oenpelli' in Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism, C. P. Mountford, ed. (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1956), pp. 109-264. Details

Edited Books

• Berndt, Ronald M. ed., Australian Aboriginal art (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964), 117 pp. Details
• Mountford, Charles P. ed., Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land 1: art. myth and symbolism (Carlton, Vic.:: Melbourne University Press, 1956), 513 pp. Details
• Mountford, Charles P. ed., Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 2: anthropology and nutrition (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1960), 516 pp. Details
• Specht, R. L. and Mountford, C. P. eds, Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 3: botany and plant ecology (Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1958), 521 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anderson, Jaynie, 'The creation of indigenous collections in Melbourne: how Kenneth Clark, Charles Mountford, and Leonhard Adam interrogated Australian indigeneity', Les actes de colloques du musée du quai Branly Jacques Chirac, 1 (2009). https://doi.org/10.4000/actesbranly.332. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M., 'The Mountford volume on Arnhem Land art, myth and symbolism: a critical review', Mankind, 5 (6) (1958), 249-61. Details
• Jordan, Caroline and Kirkby, Diane, '"No one here - understands the problem of Aboriginal art": the Fulbright Program, Aboriginal Studies and Aboriginal Art, 1950-65', Australian historical studies, 53 (1) (2022), 119-45, https://doi.org/doi:10.1080/1031461X.2020.1856899. Details
• Mountford, C. P, with photographs by Howell Walker, 'Exploring stone age Arnhem Land', National geographic magazine, 96 (1949), 745-82. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'Aboriginal decorative art from Arnhem Land, Northern Territory of Australia', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, 63 (2) (1939), 365-71. Details
• Mountford, Charles P., 'Earth's most primitive people: a journey with the Aborigines of Central Australia', National geographic magazine, 89 (6) (1946), 89-112. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q2377528. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/13582484. Details
• 'Mountford, Charles P (1890-1976)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-619126. Details
• 'Awarded honorary LittD, 1973', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

See also

• Carment, David et al ed., Northern Territory dictionary of biography (Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press, 2008), 655 pp. Details
• Clarke, Philip A., 'The Aboriginal Australian cosmic landscape, part 2: plant connections with the skyworld', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 18 (1) (2015), 23-37. Details
• Thomas, Martin and Neale, Margo eds, Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2011), 471 pp. Details