Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer, anthropologist: autograph note, signed, re. the loan of his photographs of the Arunta (Arrernte) people of Central Australia to the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. Melbourne, 1899.

Manuscript in ink, 1 page, octavo (175 x 105 mm); headed ‘Museum / Public Library, Oct 9/99 (Baldwin Spencer had recently been appointed honorary director of this institution), the letter is addressed ‘Dear Mr Macdonald’ [i.e. Alexander Cameron Macdonald,1828-1917, surveyor, geographer, and founding member of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia), and is signed ‘Yours sincerely, W. Baldwin Spencer’; evidently the note accompanied a group of photographs lent by Spencer to Macdonald which were almost certainly for a lecture at the Society, as Spencer writes: ‘Enclosed are a few photos which will probably serve your purpose. They are all of natives belonging to the Arunta tribe, Central Australia. Kindly let me have them when done with….’; residual hinge marks at each corner, otherwise very well preserved.

Provenance: Autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854-1924), “The Briars,” Mornington, Victoria (Australia); à Beckett family, Melbourne (by descent). Note: the album contained other material addressed to Alexander Cameron Macdonald, though unrelated to the Baldwin Spencer note).