Anthropology

• Online exhibition: Anthropology at LSE: the first 40 years
• Catalogue of the papers of anthropologist Sir Raymond Firth now available online.
• Some of the photographs in the Malinowski collection are available online. For further details see Papers of Bronislaw Malinowski.

Online catalogue

• The following link takes you to a list of collections held at LSE Archives relating to anthropology: Archives catalogue.
• Click on any name on that list to show the collection-level description for those papers (such as biographical or administrative information, and the scope of the papers).
• Some collections are catalogued to item-level on the Archives catalogue. For a full list of these see Completed Catalogues.
• A few collections have handlists which are not currently available on the Archives catalogue: if so, links are provided below. The handlists will be added to the online catalogue as soon as possible.

Briefing paper

Anthropology briefing paper (PDF).
To view this PDF file you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. This software is already installed on many computers. However, if you do not have it, you may download it for free from the Adobe website).

Main collections

LSE Archives holds the papers of significant anthropologists including (reference codes to the documents are in brackets):

• Sir Raymond Firth, 1901-2002 (FIRTH)
• Sir Raymond Firth, 1901-2002: photographs (FIRTH PHOTOGRAPHS)
• Ernest Gellner, 1925-1995 (GELLNER)
• Phyllis Kaberry, 1910-1977 (KABERRY)
• Bronislaw Malinowski, 1884-1942 (MALINOWSKI)
• Siegfried Nadel, 1903-1956 (NADEL): for a handlist see NADEL
• Margaret Read, 1889-1991 (READ)
• Audrey Richards, 1899-1984 (RICHARDS): for a handlist see RICHARDS
• Charles Seligman, 1873-1940, and Brenda Seligman, 1883-1965 (SELIGMAN)
• Isaac Schapera, 1905-2003 (SCHAPERA and COLL MISC 0673)

Each archive may include:

• Fieldwork documents, such as notebooks and photographs.
• Professional papers, e.g. correspondence and lecture notes.
• Personal papers, e.g. diaries and family documents.

LSE Archives also holds the institutional papers of anthropological organisations, including:

• Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA)
• Colonial Social Science Research Council (COLONIAL RESEARCH)
• International African Institute (IAI): for a handlist see IAI

For more information see the Archives catalogue.

Small collections

A number of small deposits include material relating to anthropology (COLL MISC collections). See the Archives catalogue.

Further information

• Guide to holdings
• Rare books
• Library subject guides
• Other archival resources
• Contact LSE Archives: Document@lse.ac.uk

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