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School of Oriental and African Studies

Holmes, John Henry


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Personal Boxes 3-7

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Holmes, John Henry

Date(s): 1893-1933

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 4.5 boxes

Name of creator(s): Holmes | John Henry | 1866-1934 | missionary

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born at Harbertonford, Devon, England, 1866; studied at Western College; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to the Fly River District, Papua, ordained in Plymouth, and travelled to Papua, 1893; visited the Fly River and Western Stations and returned to Thursday Island; at Port Moresby for a time; appointed to the Elema district and settled at Jokea, 1894; visited the mission stations in the (Torres) Straits and Fly River and returned to Jokea, 1895; to benefit his health, went with the mission ship the SS John Williams IV on its round of visits to the South Sea stations, 1896; returned to Papua and moved to Orokolo, 1897; visited England and married Alice Middleton (d 1941) in Plymouth, 1901; returned with his wife to Papua, 1902; volunteered to move to the Purari Delta, 1904; visited Australia to superintend the construction of a launch, the Purari, 1905; settled at Urika, 1906; visited Australia for health reasons, 1911; went to Sydney for his wife's health, 1917; the couple returned to England, 1919; retired from active service, 1920; an authority on the Elema cultures; died in Streatham, London, 1934. Publications: By Canoe to Cannibal Land (1923); In Primitive New Guinea (1924); Way back in Papua (1926).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1893-1933, of John Henry Holmes, comprising diaries, 1893-1900, 1906-1907, 1915, including observations on his activities and on life in Papua and notes on subjects including anthropology; correspondence with Alfred Cort Haddon, 1904-1906, 1922, comprising letters received and copy letters sent and chiefly concerning Holmes' study of Elema totemism; typescript articles on Papuan beliefs, including the totemism of the Elema tribes, 1914 and undated; printed comparative tables of languages spoken in different parts of Papua, 1915; photographs showing examples of the technology of the Orokaiva tribes of northern Papua; sketch maps of Papua; manuscript notes on anthropology, 1913; typescript children's stories about missionary work and life in Papua, set in the Moru and Urika districts, 1933 and undated.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist to file level.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

The papers were deposited with the London Missionary Society and form part of the special series of personal papers of individual LMS missionaries and officers.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited on permanent loan with the records of the London Missionary Society by the Congregational Council for World Mission (later Council for World Mission) in 1973.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Published on microfiche by IDC Publishers.

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the London Missionary Society (Ref: CWM/LMS), including letters from individual missionaries, among them Holmes (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Incoming Correspondence); his candidate's papers (Ref: CWM/LMS Candidates' Papers Box 7 No 48); a letter of Holmes to A W Whitley, 1905 (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Miscellaneous Box 1/2); letters from Holmes to J J K Hutchin, 1895-1905 (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Personal Box 1/9); reports by Holmes from Papua, 1895-1917 (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Reports Boxes 1-3 passim); photographs of Holmes and his wife (Ref: CWM/LMS General Portraits Box 2); photographs of Holmes in Papua (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Photographs Boxes 2, 11) and photographs of Papua given by Holmes to A W Whitley in 1937 (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua New Guinea Photographs Box 10). SOAS also holds an obituary of Holmes, 1934 (Ref: CBMS/H/PB28/93/74).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: LMS Register of Missionaries, ed James Sibree; British Library OPAC.

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: Mar 2002


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Anthropologists | Social scientists
Clergy | Religious groups
Diaries | Nonfiction | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Evangelistic missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Evangelistic missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Maps | Visual materials
Oceanic cultures | National cultures
Ordained missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Papuan languages | Austronesian and Oceanic languages
Photographs | Visual materials
Primitive religions | Religions
Protestant nonconformists | Protestants | Christians | Religious groups
Protestant nonconformity | Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Traditional technology | Technology
Travel abroad | Travel
Tribes | Ethnic groups
Totemism x Primitive religions
Cultural anthropology
Ethnology
Primary documents

Personal names
Haddon | Alfred Cort | 1855-1940 | anthropologist
Holmes | John Henry | 1866-1934 | missionary

Corporate names
Missionary Society x LMS | London Missionary Society x London Missionary Society

Places
Papua New Guinea | Oceania
Asia and the Pacific