Haddon, Alfred Cort

Epithet: anthropologist

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001072.0x000113

Alfred Cort Haddon (1855-1940), ethnologist, was born in London on 24 May 1855. He was educated at schools in London, and attended evening classes at King's College, London. He entered Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1875, and took the natural sciences tripos (B.A., 1878). In 1880 Haddon was appointed professor of zoology at the Royal College of Sciences and assistant naturalist to the Science and Art Museum in Dublin.

During 1888-1889 Haddon visited the Torres Straits to study marine biology and to record the lives of the people before contact with Europeans brought the end of native customs. Following this visit Haddon organised the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, which took place during 1898-1899. The expedition was the first anthropological investigation to be directed and carried out by scientists, and helped to develop the basic techniques of modern anthropology. Haddon himself was a pioneer in the use of film in anthropological research.

In 1900 Haddon became a lecturer in ethnology at Cambridge University, a position he held until 1925. He was elected a fellow of Christ's College in 1901. He attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Australia in 1914, and during his time there revisited the Torres Straits. On his return Haddon continued to work on his Torres Straits Reports and organised his South Seas collections at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

The Report of the Cambridge anthropology expedition to the Torres Straits was published between 1901 and 1912, with the final volume appearing in 1935. Haddon wrote, with James Hornell, Canoes of Oceania (1936-1938), and, on his own, Smoking and tobacco pipes in New Guinea (1946), a study of cultural diffusion. He died at Cambridge on 20 April 1940.

From the guide to the Alfred Cort Haddon: Papers, c. 1857-1940, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)