Letter to Mr Ashley-Montagu
TitleLetter to Mr Ashley-Montagu
ReferenceMS0295/2/2/1/2
Level of descriptionitem
Date5 April 1940
Scope and ContentA letter to Mr Ashley-Montagu [from A J E Cave] explaining that he was not in possession of the specimens which Ashley-Montagu had asked for information about, and that the chimpanzee skeleton will have to be taken out of storage in order to be photographed. [Cave] provides details of the specimen, that specimen's number was 1.26.2.94 and that it was "the articulated skeleton of a young Chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger) [Pan troglodytes, Common Chimpanzee]" used in a work comparing "the anatomy of the pigmie, compared with that of a chimpanzee, an ape". The letter also gives a history of the movements of the chimpanzee specimen, and mentions Edward Tyson, Sir Joseph Banks, William Clift, the Cheltenham Museum, The Natural History Department of The British Museum. The letter is also accompanied by typed transcriptions of an entry in the diary of Samuel Pepys dated 24 August 1661 which discusses visiting his friend Captain Holmes [Captain Robert Holmes, 1622-1692] who had returned from Guiny [Guinea] and brought a "great baboon...a monster of a man and she-baboon"; and a reference to Edward Tyson's 'The anatomy of a Pygmie compared with that of a Monkey, and Ape, and a Man" from 1699.
Extent1 Letter
Conditions governing accessBy appointment only. See College website for contact details of the Archives.
Persons keyword Alexander James Edward Cave, 1900-1999, anatomist, Sir Joseph Banks, 1743-1820, baronet, naturalist, William Clift, 1775-1849, conservator
SubjectChimpanzees, Letters (correspondence)
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