Elkin, Adolphus Peter (1891 - 1979)

Summary

Adolphus Elkin was Professor of Anthropology, University of Sydney 1934-1956 and was editor of "Oceania" from 1933. He was President of the Association for the Protection of Native Races 1933-1962 and was involved with work with aborigines.

Details

Chronology

1915

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney

1915

Life event - Ordained as minister in the Church of England

1918 - 1937

Career position - Rector (at various times) at Wallsend, Wollombi and Morpeth, New South Wales

1919 - 1921

Career position - Vice-Warden, St John's College, Armidale, New South Wales

1927

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University College, London

1932

Career event - Elected Associate Member (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1933 -

Career position - Editor, Oceania

c. 1933 - 1954

Career position - Member, Australian National Research Council

1933 - 1962

Career position - President, Association for the Protection of Native Races

1933 - 1965

Career position - Professor of Anthropology, University of Sydney

1935

Career event - Elected Member (Anthropology), Australian National Research Council

1935

Career position - President , Anthropology Section, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1937

Career event - Fellow, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS)

1949

Award - Royal Society of New South Wales Medal

1954

Career position - Chairman, Australian National Research Council

1955

Award - James Cook Medal, Royal Society of New South Wales

1956

Life event - Retired

1957

Award - Mueller Medal, Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science

1966

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) - In recognition of service to Australian anthropology

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Adolphus Peter Elkin - Records, 1937, ML MSS 3704; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Oral History Collection

• Adolphus Peter Elkin - Records, 1900 - 1965, DeB 94; National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details

University of Sydney, Archives

• Adolphus Peter Elkin - Records, 1920 - 1979, P 130; University of Sydney, Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

• Ashenden, Dean, Telling Tennant's story: the strange career of the great Australian silence (Collingwood, Vic.: Black Inc., 2022), 338 pp. Details
• Elkin, A. P., The Australian Aborigines: how to understand them (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1938), 262 pp. Details
• Elkin, A. P., Citizenship for the aborigines : a national aboriginal policy (Sydney, N.S.W.: Australasian Publishing Co., 1944), 109 pp. Details
• Wise, Tigger, The self-made anthropologist: a life of A .P. Elkin (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1985), 286 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Elkin, A. P., 'The development of scientific knowledge of the Aborigines' in Australian Aboriginal studies, Shiels, Helen, ed. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1963), pp. 3-28. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Child, Coles (1817-1898), clergyman' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 3: 1851 - 1890 A-C, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), p. 389. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030367b.htm. Details
• Goldhahn, Jaokim; Harper, Sam; Veth, Peter; and Ouzman, Sven, 'Histories of rock art research in Western Australia's Kimberley, 1838 - 2000' 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. 173-204. https://doi.org/10.22459/TA55.2022.10. Details
• Wise, Tigger, 'Elkin, Adolophus Peter (1891-1979), anglican clergyman and professor of anthropology' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 14: 1940 - 1980 Di-Kel, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1996), pp. 87-89. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140101b.htm. Details

Edited Books

• Berndt, Ronald M. ed., Australian Aboriginal art (Sydney: Ure Smith, 1964), 117 pp. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H. eds, Aboriginal man in Australia: essays in honour of Emeritus Prof. A. P. Elkin (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1965), 491 pp. Details
• Elkin, A. P.; and Macintosh, N. W. G. eds, Grafton Elliot Smith: the man and his work (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1974), 232 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Berndt, Ronald M., 'Professor A. P. Elkin: an appreciation', Mankind, 5 (3) (1956), 89-101. Details
• Berndt, Ronald M.; and Berndt, Catherine H., 'Adolphus Peter Elkin, 1891-1979', Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 14 (3) (1979), 161-7. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Rock-paintings of north-west Australia', Oceania, 1 (3) (1930), 257-79. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Anthropology in Australia, past and present', Report of Meeting Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, 1935 (1935), 196-207. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Anthropological research in Australia and the western Pacific, 1927 - 1937', Oceania, 8 (1938), 306-27. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Anthropology in Australia, 1939', Oceania, 10 (1939), 1-29. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Obituary: J. H. L. Waterhouse', Australian Journal of Science, 5 (2) (1942), 61-62. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Obituary: F. E. Williams', Australian Journal of Science, 6 (3) (1943), 92-93. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Grey's northern Kimberley cave-paintings re-found', Oceania, 19 (1) (1948), 1-15. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'The Australian National Research Council', Australian Journal of Science, 16 (6) (1954), 203-11. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'A Darwin centenary and highlights of field-work in Australia', Mankind, 5 (8) (1959), 321-33, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1959.tb00317.x. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Australian Aboriginal and white relations: a personal record', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 48 (3) (1962), 208-30. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'ANZAAS. A History', Australian Journal of Science, 25 (1962), 2-4. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'Centenary oration: the challenge to science, 1866; the challenge of science, 1966, part 1', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 100 (3/4) (1966), 105-18. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'The journal Oceania', Oceania, 40 (1970), 245-79. Details
• Elkin, A. P., 'R.H. Mathews: his contribution to Aboriginal studies', Oceania, 2 (2) (1975), 126-52. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461.1975.tb01901.x. Details
• Gray, G., '"Mr Neville did all in [his] power to assist me": A. P. Elkin, A. O. Neville and anthropological research in northwest Western Australia, 1927 - 1928', Oceania, 68 (1) (1997), 27-46. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4461. 1997.tb02640.x. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey, '"You are... my anthropological children": AP Elkin, Ronald Berndt and Catherine Berndt, 1940 - 1956', Aboriginal History, 29 (2005), 77-106. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24046689. Details
• Gray, Geoffrey and Munro, Doug, 'Australian Aboriginal anthropology at the crossroads: finding a successor to A. P. Elkin, 1955', Australian journal of anthropology, 22 (3) (2011), 351-69. Details
• McGregor, Russell, 'The concept of primitivity in the early anthropological writings of A.P. Elkin', Aboriginal history, 17 (2) (1993), 95-104. Details
• Paisley, Fiona, 'Education as anthropology: A. P. Elkin on "native education", the Pacific, and Australia in the 1930s', History of education (2022), 21. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2022.2112768. Details
• Reay, Marie, 'A. P; Elkin (1891 - 1979): a personal memoir', Aboriginal history, 3 (1) (1979), 88-90. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q366014. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/9936853. Details
• 'Elkin, A P (18910327-19790709)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-479607. Details

See also

• Leithhead, Barry, A vision for Australia's health: Dr Cecil Cook at work (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2019), 358 pp. Details
• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 261. Details
• White, F. W.G., 'Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978)', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (1) (1980), 68-102. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9800510068. Details