::''See also
Henry Balfour (MP for Fifeshire)
Major Hon. Henry Balfour was Shire Commissioner for Fifeshire in the Parliament of Scotland prior to the Act of Union 1707.
The last Scottish Parliament was originally summoned to meet at Edinburgh on 12 November 1702, but was prorogued until 6 ...
''
![Henry Balfour](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Henry_Balfour.jpg)
Henry Balfour
FRS FRAI (11 April 1863 – 9 February 1939) was a British
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, and the first curator of the
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...
.
He was President of the
Royal Anthropological Institute
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...
,
Museums Association
The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals, museums, galleries and heritage organisations, and companies that work in the museum, gallery and heritage s ...
,
Folklore Society
The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of folklore.
It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts an ...
,
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, and a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
.
Biography
Henry Balfour, the only son of
Lewis Balfour
Lewis Balfour (1777–1860) was a Scottish minister of the Church of Scotland. He was a pivotal figure in the family life of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Life
He was born on 30 August 1777 at Pilrig House between Edinburgh and Leith, the son of ...
(1833–1885),a silk broker from Croydon, and Sarah Walker Comber (1836–1916), was born in 1863. His parents married on 28 July 1857. He had two older sisters: Edith Balfour (born c. 1859) and Marian Balfour (born c. 1860). His father died on 1 May 1885, at 15 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London, at 52 years of age.
In 1887 Henry married
Edith Marie Louise Wilkins, only daughter of
Robert Francis Wilkins
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
of Kingswear, south Devon. They had one son, Lewis Balfour (1887–1974). The Balfours lived at 11
Norham Gardens
__NOTOC__
Norham Gardens is a residential road in central North Oxford, England. It adjoins the north end of Parks Road near the junction with Banbury Road, directly opposite St Anne's College. From here it skirts the north side of the Oxford ...
, Oxford before moving to
Langley Lodge,
Headington, Oxford
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. Th ...
later in life. A few months after the death of his wife, Balfour died in his home in
Headington, Oxford
Headington is an eastern suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames valley below, and bordering Marston to the north-west, Cowley to the south, and Barton and Risinghurst to the east. Th ...
, on 9 February 1939.
Balfour was educated at
Charterhouse
Charterhouse may refer to:
* Charterhouse (monastery), of the Carthusian religious order
Charterhouse may also refer to:
Places
* The Charterhouse, Coventry, a former monastery
* Charterhouse School, an English public school in Surrey
London ...
and
Trinity College, Oxford
(That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody)
, named_for = The Holy Trinity
, established =
, sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge
, president = Dame Hilary Boulding
, location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH
, coordinates ...
(matriculated 1881-graduated 1885), and took
Honours Mods and later the final school of animal
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
in 1885. In 1884 the University of Oxford accepted the collection of ethnological and archaeological specimens made and arranged by General
Augustus Pitt Rivers
Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 18274 May 1900) was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display o ...
: Professor
H. N. Moseley, in whose charge the
Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed t ...
was placed by the University, invited Balfour, who was one of his students, to assist in the installation of the collection in the new museum building. Moseley had recognised the keen and alert intelligence of Balfour, his love of animals, and his skill as a draughtsman. Balfour continued to work under Moseley's supervision till Moseley's death in 1891, when the whole responsibility devolved on Balfour. Balfour was appointed Curator in 1893 and continued in that position until his death. That a large and unique museum has grown up around the original nucleus of the Pitt Rivers collection is entirely due to Balfour's erudition and devotion.
Specimens of the arts and crafts of various peoples had long been collected in museums and were regarded as little more than curiosities or trophies, but owing to the work of Colonel Lane-Fox they acquired a new significance. In 1851 Augustus H. Lane Fox (later Pitt Rivers) began to collect specimens of firearms to illustrate his recognition that every noteworthy advancement in the efficiency, not only of the whole weapon but also of every individual detail in its structure, was arrived at as a cumulative result of a succession of every slight modifications, each of which was but a trifling improvement upon the one immediately preceding it. He was led to believe that the same principle most probably govern the development of the other arts, appliances, and ideas of mankind. and forthwith he began to make the ethnological collection with which he will always be associated, though under the name of Pitt Rivers, which he assumed in 1880. Unlike other keen collectors, there was invariably some principle of theory that the objects he collected were designed to illustrate. The spoils of over twenty years of intelligent collecting were exhibited in 1874 in the
Bethnal Green Museum
Bethnal were a British rock band formed in 1972. In 1978, they released two albums on Vertigo Records: ''Dangerous Times'', produced by Kenny Laguna; and ''Crash Landing''; produced by Jon Astley and Phil Chapman,
with special thanks to Pete Tow ...
. The collection was a revelation to students, and was the first application of the theory of evolution to objects made by man. The validity of the general views of Colonel Lane Fox as to the evolution of the material arts of man was rapidly accepted by a large number of ethnologists and others.
As
palaeontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
is ancient
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
, so
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
is ancient
ethnology
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...
; by bringing together the archeological and ethnological material, Pitt Rivers sought to make each elucidate the other. From the archaeological record a sequence could be derived, but there are many gaps and these he sought to fill from evidence derived from a study of the recent primitive and barbaric peoples. The culture of the modern stone-age man he regarded as more or less direct survival from that of ancient stone-age man and he argued that much which is obscure in the culture of prehistoric times may be elucidated by reference to recent primitive peoples.
Balfour stated in his Presidential Address to the
Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
in 1919
Arguing from the known to the inknown, ese modern survivals of early cultures have been used, as far as possible, to complete the picture of the life and industries of Prehistoric Man. From the combined material derived from ancient and modern times series were created to show, tentatively at any rate, how the more developed types of appliances were arrived at by successive slight improvements from their simple and generalized prototypes.
Incidentally these typological series serve to demonstrate the geographical distribution of particular arts, industries, and appliances, a matter which is becoming recognized as increasingly important, as affording valuable clues to the intricate problems of racial dispersal and migration routes, and as supplying evidence of the culture-contact between various peoples not necessarily related to one another.
Balfour went on to say, "In studying the development of human arts, it must not be supposed that progress was effected by a simple process of what is known as 'end-on' evolution, the successive morphological changes following one another in simple unilinear series".
Works
Although he only wrote one book, ''The Evolution of Decorative Art'' (1893), Balfour published numerous scholarly articles, often taking a specific type of object – from musical bows to fire-pistons or fishing-kites – and exploring its "evolutionary development" through history and across different cultures.
References
;Attribution
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
:
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balfour, Henry
Archaeologists from London
1863 births
1939 deaths
People educated at Charterhouse School
Fellows of the Royal Society
Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society
People from Croydon
People associated with the Pitt Rivers Museum
Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Presidents of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
Presidents of the Folklore Society