The Pitt Rivers Museum
| 1820 | 1840 | 1860 | 1880 | 1900 | 1920 | 1940 | 1960 | 1980 | 2000 | 2020 |
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- Pitt Rivers inherited large estate of Rushmore and starts to develop a second collection and Farnham museum ?
- Pitt Rivers offered first collection to South Kensington Museum, offer was refused
- Tylor gave two public lectures on anthropology at University of Oxford
- Linacre professor of Human Anatomy, then Henry Nottidge Moseley, decreed responsible for anatomical and ethnographic specimens belonging to University
- In May University accepted offer of Pitt Rivers' collection
- Tylor started work at OUMNH as Keeper, March
- Tylor appointed first Reader in Anthropology, December with tenure from 1 January 1884 ?
- Tylor moved into Museum House in September, as Keeper of OUMNH ?
- Terms of acceptance of donation from Pitt Rivers' drawn up by a Committee of members of University Convocation ?
- Accepted foundation date for Pitt Rivers Museum
- Museum of the Indian Institute established at the University ?
- First anthropological lecture series given at Oxford by Tylor in OUMNH, January
- Moseley and Tylor visited North America for the BAAS meeting, and travelled to SW USA afterwards, August-September
- 20 May 1884. Deed of gift signed by Pitt Rivers, donating Pitt Rivers Collection to the University of Oxford
- Arthur Evans became Keeper of Ashmolean Museum
- J.T. Long appointed as Pitt Rivers Museum's first assistant
- Plans for Pitt Rivers Museum building completed November
- Work begun on moving founding collection from South Kensington Museum to Oxford
- Building work begun on extension of OUMNH for Pitt Rivers collection
- Artefacts transferred to Oxford from South Kensington Museum, work carried out by Walter Baldwin Spencer and Henry Balfour and supervised by H.N. Moseley and E.B. Tylor ?
- Balfour appointed to work on cataloguing and displaying ethnology collections in Oxford, October
- Pitt Rivers awarded DCL by Oxford University ?
- Transfer of ethnographic and some archaeological artefacts from Ashmolean Museum to PRM ?
- Transfer of ethnographic and some archaeological artefacts from other departments of OUMNH to PRM ?
- First date upon which displays work at PRM begun
- Ground floor [known as the Court] of the PRM opened for first time to general public and University staff and student.
- Moseley unwell and Balfour prepared report on display progress, no details about which displays worked on
- First annual report for PRM prepared and published as part of OUMNH annual report ?
- Because of Moseley's ongoing illness, responsibility for PRM carried by Balfour
- Balfour in annual report calculated that about 1,500 objects had been catalogued ?
- Balfour absent for two months on trip to Lapland, August-September ?
- Tylor broached idea of threepenny guide to Pitt Rivers' collections in letter to Pitt Rivers
- Displays worked on during the year: Ornamental and decorative art and Deformation of body, displays in Upper Gallery [prehistoric and 'savage and other' weapons] ?
- Upper Gallery of the Museum opened to the public.
- Pitt Rivers visited Oxford in October [according to Chapman, 1981:518]
- Balfour appointed to post of sub-curator of PRM
- Annual Report mentions a 'Museum Maintenance of Collections' Fund used to purchase additional artefacts [this is not mentioned subsequently]
- Balfour published a paper on , 'On the Structure and Affinities of the Composite Bow', JRAI, vol. 19, which sparked a disagreement with Pitt Rivers (see 1890) ?
- Beatrice Mary Blackwood born, 3 May
- Displays worked on during the year: none recorded but work in Lower Gallery carried out
- PR and Balfour argued about composite bow publication ?
- Balfour appointed Curator of PRM until 1891, with same status as Professors teaching in OUMNH
- Lower Gallery remained closed because it was being used as workspace to work on displays elsewhere in Museum
- Balfour proposed handbook on collections for visitors in annual report
- Displays worked on during the year: Musical instruments, Upper Gallery and Court displays
- 30 April, Pitt Rivers gives a lecture on "The Original Collection of the Pitt-Rivers Museum; the Principles of Arrangement and History", taken by some as being the opening of the Museum
- Work continues on the displays in the Lower Gallery, the last area of the Museum to be opened to the general public.
- Balfour mentioned handbook for visitors on collections in annual report [it is not mentioned after this year, and is never produced]
- Building work began on providing new office for Curator and work room for unpacking and arranging displays
- Displays worked on during the year: Musical instruments, weaving, barkcloth, masks, boat models and fire-making
- Moseley died November
- Balfour reappointed Curator until 1898
- New Curator's office, workshops and storerooms completed on south west side of Museum
- Department of Geology got new extension at side of PRM, eventually to become Balfour Library from 1948-2004
- Displays worked on during the year: Musical instruments, food and water vessels, substitutes for pottery
- All display spaces within Museum [Court, Lower Gallery and Upper Gallery] opened for first time
- Balfour gave first official series of lectures at the Museum
- Arthur Thomson, lecturer in Human Anatomy, gave first official lectures on physical anthropology
- Displays worked on during the year: Stone implements, Pottery, Writing, Magic/ charms, Lighting, Smoking / narcotics, Death, Burmese manuscripts,
- Tylor had disputes in OUMNH ?
- Ashmolean Museum archaeological collections transferred from Broad Street to Beaumont Street ?
- Glazed roof renewed 1894-5
- Tylor appointed first Oxford Professor of Anthropology [personal position]
- Glazed roof renewed 1894-5
- William Beale, Museum attendant, died
- Henry John Walters appointed to museum staff ?
- Old printed labels replaced by painted ones ?
- Displays worked on during the years 1894-1895: Lighting, Smoking / narcotics, Currency, Animal form in art, Human figures in art, String / netting
- Displays worked on during the year: Stone implements, Pottery, Palaeolithic implements, Archery, blow-guns, Feather ornaments, Ex-voto figures, Cook collection
- PRM reverted to labels printed in OUMNH ?
- Displays worked on during the year: Musical instruments, food and water vessels, stone implements, palaeolithic implements, archery, blowguns, feather ornaments, ex-voto figures, Cook collection
- Tylor reappointed Reader for further 5 years
- Tylor started process of acquiring a totem pole from Masset, British Columbia, Canada
- Balfour reappointed Curator until 1905
- Balfour wrote to friend Baldwin Spencer that he is trying to build up the Museum's photographic collections
- J.T. Long, museum assistant since Museum opened, resigned to work in the Anatomical Department
- Balfour ill, and had to delay submitting Annual Report for 1898 ?
- Pitt Rivers was asked for, and sent, photograph of himself for display in the Museum
- Harold St George Gray began work as Balfour's chief museum assistant. He had previously worked as Pitt Rivers' assistant
- New wall- and other exhibition cases installed
- Displays worked on during 1898-1899: Deformation of body, Musical instruments, archery, blowguns, feather ornaments, adzes, shell ornaments
