Henry Christy (26 July 1810 – 4 May 1865) was an English banker and collector, who left his substantial collections to the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
Early life
Christy was born at
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...
, the second son of
William Miller Christy
William Miller Christy (1778–1858) was an English Quaker hat and textile manufacturer, known also as a banker. He is credited with the invention of the penny receipt-stamp.
Life
He was the second son of Miller Christy (1748–1820) and Ann Ri ...
of Woodbines, a
Quaker
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
banker who started out in hat manufacture with interests in
Stockport
Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here.
Most of the town is within ...
, before becoming a financier.
Trained to business by his father, Henry Christy became a partner in the house of Christy & Co. in
Gracechurch Street
Gracechurch Street is a main road in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London, which is designated the A1213.
It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, and offices and has an entrance to Leadenhall Market, a covered ...
, and succeeded his father as a director of the
London Joint-Stock Bank. He was still a board member of the bank at the end of his life, despite other activities. Henry contributed to the success of the family firm, known as
W. M. Christy & Sons Ltd. once his father took it over. Samples of textiles he brought home from the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
provided the idea for looped cotton
towelling, taken up by his brother Richard, and amenable to mechanical manufacture with a technique devised by an employee. Christy also innovated with woven silk rather than
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
for the manufacture of
top hat
A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...
s.
Interests
Christy was a philanthropist, active in the
Great Famine and other causes. With other Quakers Christy took the approach of buying seeds for other vegetable crops, to reduce the potato
monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monoculture is widely used in intensive farming and in organic farming: both a 1,000-hectare/acre cornfield and a 10-ha/acre field of organic kale are ...
. With committee members
Robert Forster
Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in '' Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in '' The Delta Force'' (1986 ...
and
Samuel Fox, he also lobbied the government for practical help in improving Irish fisheries. He was one of the founders of the
. In 1857 he visited, with
Lord Althorp
John Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer, (30 May 1782 – 1 October 1845), styled Viscount Althorp from 1783 to 1834, was a British statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political care ...
and John W. Probyn, the
Elgin settlement
Elgin may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Elgin County, Ontario
* Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario
* Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario
* ...
of
free blacks in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, writing afterwards to its founder
William King, and giving money. He was also a committee member of the
British and Foreign School Society
The British and Foreign School Society (BFSS) offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies. It was significant in the history of education in England, suppor ...
.
Christy was also involved in numerous learned societies. He belonged to both the
Ethnological Society of London
The Ethnological Society of London (ESL) was a learned society founded in 1843 as an offshoot of the Aborigines' Protection Society (APS). The meaning of ethnology as a discipline was not then fixed: approaches and attitudes to it changed over its ...
and the
Anthropological Society of London
The Anthropological Society of London (ASL) was a short-lived organisation of the 1860s whose founders aimed to furnish scientific evidence for white supremacy which they construed in terms of polygenism. It was founded in 1863 by Richard Francis ...
, representing different strands arising from early
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 ...
. He became a Fellow of the
Linnean Society
The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...
in 1856, and joined the
Geological Society
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
in 1858. He took part in both the archaeological societies of the period, and the
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 ...
.
He was also a
Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
, and sponsored the application for membership there of
Augustus Lane Fox (later Pitt Rivers), the other major British collector of the time in the ethnographic field.
Travels and collecting
In 1850 Christy began to visit foreign countries. Among the fruits of his first expedition to the East were an extensive collection of Eastern fabrics, and a large series of figures from Cyprus, which are now in the British Museum.
After the
Great Exhibition of 1851
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...
, Christy began the study of tribal peoples. In 1852, and again in 1853, he travelled in
Denmark
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, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, Sweden, and
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. The public collections of antiquities at Stockholm and Copenhagen were a revelation to him, and from this time he collected objects from contemporary and prehistoric periods. The year 1856 was devoted to America. Travelling over Canada, the United States, and
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Christy met
Edward Burnett Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 18322 January 1917) was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology.
Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century cultural evolutionism. In his works '' Primitive Culture'' (1871) and ''Anthropology'' ...
in
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
, and they went on together to Mexico, where Christy made many purchases. Their Mexican travels were described by Tylor in his ''Anahuac'' (London, 1861).
![Plaques Eyzies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Plaques_Eyzies.jpg)
In 1858, the
antiquity of man
The discovery of human antiquity was a major achievement of science in the middle of the 19th century, and the foundation of scientific paleoanthropology. The antiquity of man, human antiquity, or in simpler language the age of the human race, are ...
was proved by the discoveries of
Boucher de Perthes on
flint implements in France; Christy joined the
Geological Society
The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows.
Fe ...
that year. He went with the French palæontologist
Edouard Lartet in the examination of the caves along the valley of the
Vézère
The Vézère (; oc, Vesera) is a 211-km-long river in southwestern France. It is an important tributary to the Dordogne. Its source is in the northwestern part of the elevated plateau known as the Massif Central. It flows into the Dordogne near ...
, a tributary of the
Dordogne
Dordogne ( , or ; ; oc, Dordonha ) is a large rural department in Southwestern France, with its prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and the Pyrenees, it is named af ...
, in the south of France. Remains are embedded in the
stalagmites
A stalagmite (, ; from the Greek , from , "dropping, trickling")
is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically ...
of these caves. Thousands of specimens were obtained, some of them being added to Christy's collection. The sites they investigated included
Le Moustier
Le Moustier is an archeological site consisting of two rock shelters in Peyzac-le-Moustier, a village in the Dordogne, France. It is known for a complete skeleton of the species ''Homo neanderthalensis'' that was discovered in 1908. The Mouste ...
, the
Abri de la Madeleine
The archaeological site Abri de la Madeleine (Magdalene Shelter) is a rock shelter under an overhanging cliff situated near Tursac, in the Dordogne ''département'' of the Aquitaine Région of South-Western France. It represents the type site of ...
, both important
type sites
In archaeology, a type site is the archaeological site, site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other Typology (archaeology), typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène (archaeological ...
.
Death
In April 1865, Christy left England with a small party of geologists to examine some caves which had recently been discovered in Belgium, near
Dinant
Dinant () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Namur Province, province of Namur, Belgium. On the shores of river Meuse, in the Ardennes, it lies south-east of Brussels, south ...
. While at work he caught a severe cold. A subsequent journey with M. and Mme. Lartet to
La Palisse brought on inflammation of the lungs, of which he died on 4 May 1865.
Collections and legacy
By his will, Christy bequeathed his collections of modern objects to the nation; his archaeological collection went to the nation, but with the finds from excavations in France to be shared with the French
Musée d'Archéologie Nationale
The National Archaeological Museum (French: Musée d'Archéologie nationale) is a major French archaeology museum, covering pre-historic times to the Merovingian period (450–750 CE). It is housed in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the ' ...
, which was to get the most important pieces. He also left £5000 which established the Christy fund that allowed the British Museum to purchase many more artefacts;
[Christy Fund](_blank)
British Museum, accessed August 2010 with a sum of money to be applied to public exhibition. As there was then no spare room at the British Museum, the trustees secured the suite of rooms at 103 Victoria Street, London SW (in which Christy himself had lived) and here the collection was exhibited, under the care of
A. W. Franks, until 1884. The young
Charles Hercules Read, later Franks's successor as Keeper at the British Museum, was based there doing the cataloguing, in his first work for the museum. In that year the removal of the natural history department to South Kensington made room for the collection at the British Museum.
Christy had a partial catalogue of his collections made in 1862, by
Carl Ludvig Steinhauer Carl may refer to:
*Carl, Georgia, city in USA
*Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
* Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name
*Carl², a TV series
* "Carl", an episode of te ...
.
British Museum, biography of Christy.
/ref> In 1864 he wrote an account of the work which was being carried out at his expense in the Vézère Valley; these notices appeared in the '' Comptes rendus'' (29 February 1864) and '' Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London'' (21 June 1864). They referred mainly to the "reindeer period", as the time of the cavemen in southern France then came to be styled. Christy's funding contributed to the discovery of Cro-Magnon
Early European modern humans (EEMH), or Cro-Magnons, were the first early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') to settle in Europe, migrating from Western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They ...
man in 1868 in a cave near Les Eyzies
Les Eyzies (; oc, Las Aisiás) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It was established on 1 January 2019 by merger of the former communes of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil (the seat), Manaurie and Sa ...
. An account of the explorations appeared in a half-finished book left by Christy, entitled ''Reliquiae Aquitanicae, being contributions to the Archaeology and Paleontology of Périgord and the adjacent provinces of Southern France''; this was completed by Christy's executors, first by Lartet and, after his death in 1870, by Thomas Rupert Jones
Thomas Rupert Jones Royal Society, FRS (1 October 181913 April 1911) was a British geologist and palaeontologist.
Biography
Jones was born on 1 October 1819 in Cheapside, London, the son of John Jones, silk merchant, and his wife Rhoda (née Bur ...
.
References
Attribution
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christy, Henry
English archaeologists
English palaeontologists
1810 births
1865 deaths
British Mesoamericanists
Historians of Mesoamerican art
19th-century Mesoamericanists
People associated with the British Museum
Fellows of the Geological Society of London
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Fellows of the Royal Entomological Society
Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Deaths from lung disease