Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen (8 June 1828 – 23 March 1894) was an exhibition organizer and the Director of the South Kensington Museum in London.H. T. Wood (rev. R. C. Denis)
Owen, Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe- (1828–1894)
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, 2004. Obituary of Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen
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'', 24 March 1894.

Biography

Philip Cunliffe-Owen was a British subject born in Switzerland, the son of Captain Charles Cunliffe-Owen RN and Mary Peckwell Blossett. At the age of 12, he joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

, served in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

and

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, but left after five years due to poor health. Palaisext2

In 1854, his elder brother, Henry Charles Cunliffe-Owen, helped him to obtain a position in the newly formed Department of Science and Art. The secretary of the department was

Henry Cole Sir Henry Cole FRSA (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882) was a British civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in the 19th century in the United Kingdom. Cole is credited with devising the concept of ...

(later to be the first Director of the South Kensington Museum). Cole appointed Cunliffe-Owen as one of the superintendents of the British section in the 1855 Exposition Universelle, held at Paris. Cunliffe-Owen was an expert in French, which proved very helpful. In 1857, Cunliffe-Owen became deputy general superintendent of the new South Kensington Museum. In 1860, he was promoted to be Assistant Director in 1860, second in command to Henry Cole, who was the Director. Cunliffe-Owen acted as director of the foreign sections for the

1862 International Exhibition The International Exhibition of 1862, or Great London Exposition, was a world's fair. It was held from 1 May to 1 November 1862, beside the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, South Kensington, London, England, on a site that now houses ...

in London. He helped Cole as assistant executive commissioner for the Paris 1867 Exposition Universelle. He was appointed secretary of the Royal Commission and to represent Britain at the 1873 Weltausstellung in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, reporting to the Edward, Prince of Wales. For the 1876

Centennial Exhibition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, US, Cunliffe-Owen was Great Britain's executive commissioner for Great Britain and visited the United States to make the initial arrangements. Two years later, Cunliffe-Owen was again Secretary of the Royal Commission for the Paris 1878 Exposition Universelle. In 1876, he was elected as a member to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. In 1893, on Cunliffe-Owen's retirement as Director, the South Kensington Museum was split into the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

and the

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in ...

Honours

In 1864, Cunliffe-Owen was elected a member of the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

and in 1879 he was appointed to the society's council. He was invested as a Companion of the

Order of the Indian Empire The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

, invested as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, and invested as a Knight Commander of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

. He received a number of foreign decorations, including Grand Officier of the French

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

Personal life

Cunliffe-Owen married Jenny von Reitzenstein (died 1894), daughter of Baron Fritz von Reitzenstein from Germany, on 12 May 1854. He had ten children in all. The tobacco industrialist, Sir Hugo Cunliffe-Owen (1870–1947), was his ninth child and his youngest son. Another son,

Frederick Frederick may refer to: People * Frederick (given name), the name Nobility Anhalt-Harzgerode *Frederick, Prince of Anhalt-Harzgerode (1613–1670) Austria * Frederick I, Duke of Austria (Babenberg), Duke of Austria from 1195 to 1198 * Frederick ...

, became a newspaper columnist in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Cunliffe-Owen died of heart disease in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 23 March 1894.

References

External links

'Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen', 1880Science and Society Picture Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunliffe-Owen, Philip 1828 births 1894 deaths English curators Directors of the Victoria and Albert Museum Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur English expatriates in Switzerland Place of birth missing 19th-century British businesspeople