Frederick David McCarthy (13 August 1905 – 18 November 1997) was an Australian anthropologist and archaeologist. He worked at the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

in Sydney and was Foundation Principal of the

Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), established as the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS) in 1964, is an independent Australian Government statutory authority. It is a collecting, ...

, with interests covering

Australian archaeology Australian archaeology is a large sub-field in the discipline of archaeology. Archaeology in Australia takes four main forms: Aboriginal archaeology (the archaeology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia before and after ...

, museology and

Aboriginal rock art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving ...

Life and career

McCarthy was one of a pair of identical twins born to an English-Scottish immigrant couple, at Crystal Street in Petersham in 1906. In 1920, at the age of 14, he started work at the Australian Museum as a library clerk; his neighbour, Lucas, worked at the Museum as a carpenter and told him about the position. In 1930, he moved to a position in the Department of Birds and Reptile. Within 12 years of starting at the museum he rose to be Curator of Ethnology, a position he held until 1964, when he was appointed foundational principal of the

. Lacking formal qualifications he then undertook a degree in anthropology at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

in 1933 under A. P. Elkin. He graduated with a thesis entitled ''The material culture of eastern Australia, a study of factors entering into its composition.'' McCarthy married a co-worker, Elsie Bramell in 1940. She was forced to resign her position at the Australian Museum as part of a policy not to allow couples to work together in the same department, resulting in the anthropology department being reduced to one person, her position not being replaced until 1961. She continued to assist in McCarthy's fieldwork. Fred and Elsie were the first professionally trained anthropologists and archaeologists in any museum in Australia. In 1941 McCarthy was promoted to First Class Scientific Assistant and then appointed as curator of the anthropological collections. In private life, McCarthy was a keen sportsman and bushwalker. He retired in 1971 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

in recognition of his achievements.

Work

In the underfinanced years of the depression McCarthy undertook, together with a volunteer team he organized, to survey at his own expense, and in his free time, numerous prehistoric art galleries, recording and sketching their contents before urban sprawl destroyed extensive remains of Sydney's aboriginal heritage. They would train over the weekends to areas like the

Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. ...

, around

Cowan Cowan or Cowans may refer to: Places Australia * Cowan, New South Wales * Cowan Creek, a waterway to the north of Sydney, Australia * Division of Cowan, a federal division of the Australian House of Representatives, in Western Australia * Hundr ...

, Berowra, Mangrove Creek and the Georges River. This resulted in the compilation of a massive manuscript on Sydney's regional indigenous art which, together with his diaries, he left to AIATSIS after his retirement. McCarty's diaries of his visit to Indonesia in 1937-8 and the 3rd Congress of Prehistorians of the Far East, in Singapore are held by the AIATSIS Library. Recognition of his achievements in both anthropology and archaeology led to an invitation in 1948 to participate in the

1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land In February 1948, a team of Australian and American researchers and support staff came together in northern Australia to begin, what was then, one of the largest scientific expeditions ever to have taken place in Australia—the American-Australia ...

. His work with

Margaret McArthur Annie Margaret McArthur (1919–2002) was an Australian nutritionist, anthropologist and educator. She is remembered for conducting ground-breaking research from the late 1940s into the indigenous peoples of Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pac ...

at Oenpelli (present-day

Gunbalanya Gunbalanya (also spelt Kunbarlanja, and historically referred to as Oenpelli) is an Aboriginal Australian town in west Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia, about east of Darwin. The main language spoken in the community is Kunwi ...

) was to lead to a groundbreaking study on time factors in aboriginal women's quest for food. A further opportunity for fieldwork came up in 1958 when he obtained a Wenner-Gren Foundation grant to pursue research on aboriginal art in north western Australia. In 1961 he went to the

Cape York Peninsula Cape York Peninsula is a large peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth’s last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupació ...

and studied Aboriginal clan dancing at

Aurukun Aurukun is a town and coastal locality in the Shire of Aurukun and the Shire of Cook in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is an Indigenous community. In the , the locality of Aurukun had a population of 1,269 people. Geography Aurukun is ...

. His assiduous investigations resulted in the close description of some 43 totemic dancing events in two large volumes, and the collection of an important number of ornaments used in them. In 1957 he published one of the first thorough treatises on Australian aborigines, ''Australia's Aborigines, their life and culture''.Kate Kahn (1993) "Frederick David McCarthy: a bibliography". Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 17: 1-5

Publications

McCarthy's output of papers was extensive. He published some 300 articles and books between 1933 and 1988. Books include: * F. D. McCarthy, ''Australian Aboriginal Decorative Art,'' (1938) * F. D. McCarthy, Elsie McCarthy, H.V.V. Noone ''The Stone Implements of Australia'' (1946): a standard text for aboriginal stone tools for many decades. * F. D. McCarthy, ''Australian Aboriginal Rock Art.'' (1958) At his death, he left, unpublished a 900-page manuscript entitled ''Artists of the sandstone,'' an ethnographical study of contact with whites in Sydney in 1788.

Awards

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

Australian Archaeological Association obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Frederick 1905 births 1997 deaths Australian archaeologists Australian anthropologists 20th-century archaeologists 20th-century anthropologists People from New South Wales Identical twins Australian twins Australian people of English descent Australian people of Scottish descent