William Henry Furness III (August 10, 1866 – August 11, 1920) was an American physician,

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and author from

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He made multiple trips to the South Pacific, and was among the first to study and photograph the Kayan people of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

and the Wa'ab people on the island of

Yap Yap ( yap, Waqaab) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federated States of Micr ...

Biography

Furness was the grandson and namesake of Unitarian theologian

William Henry Furness William Henry Furness (April 20, 1802 – January 30, 1896) was an American clergyman, theologian, Transcendentalist, abolitionist, and reformer. Biography Furness was born in Boston, where he attended the Boston Latin School and developed a lif ...

, and the son of Shakespearean scholar

Horace Howard Furness Horace Howard Furness (November 2, 1833 – August 13, 1912) was an American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century. Life and career Horace Furness was the son of the Unitarian minister and abolitionist William Henry Furness (1802–1896), ...

. He attended St. Paul's School (Class of 1883) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

(Class of 1888), and graduated from the

University of Pennsylvania Medical School The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

in 1891. He was one of the medical students portrayed in the

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

painting '' The Agnew Clinic''. Furness made four expeditions to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

and

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

between 1895 and 1901, accompanied by Hiram M. Hiller, Jr. and Alfred C. Harrison, Jr. The trio collected ethnographic, archaeological, and skeletal material, and Furness and Harrison took photographs. These artifacts were among the founding collections of the

University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...

Zoological 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 kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

specimens – mostly fish and birds – were donated to the

Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading nat ...

. Duplicate objects were donated to the

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropological material, with ...

at Harvard University. He returned to the South Pacific in 1903, and spent two months among the Wa'ab people on the island of Uap (Yap). He wrote about their use of

rai stones A rai stone ( yap, raay), or fei stone, is one of many large artifacts that were manufactured and treasured by the native inhabitants of the Yap islands in Micronesia. They are also known as Yapese stone money or similar names. The typical ra ...

– doughnut-shaped limestone discs – as money. As a coral island, Uap had no natural stone, and most of the rai came from

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the ...

, an island some 280 miles (450 k) away. A rai with a diameter of about 1 foot (30.5 cm) was enough to purchase a full-grown pig, but some had diameters as large as 12 feet (3.66 m). Rai was a currency that represented genuine labor – it had to be mined and carved on Palau, transported hundreds of miles by outrigger canoe or raft, and on Uap a team of twenty men was required to move the largest ones about. Utilizing a phonograph, Furness recorded Wa'ab speech and native songs, and published the first Uapese-to-English/English-to-Uapese dictionary. Furness served as curator of the University of Pennsylvania Museum's general ethnology section, 1903-05. At home in

Wallingford, Pennsylvania Wallingford is an unincorporated community in Nether Providence Township, Delaware County in Pennsylvanias. Founded in 1687, it is named for Wallingford, England. In 2007, Wallingford was named by ''Money Magazine'' as the 9th best place to li ...

, he raised chimpanzeees and

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genu ...

s, and experimented with teaching them rudimentary human speech:

If these animals have a language it is restricted to a very few sounds of a general emotional signification. Articulate speech they have none and communication with one another is accomplished by vocal sounds to no greater extent than it is by dogs, with a growl, a whine, or a bark. They are, however, capable to a surprising degree of acquiring an understanding of human speech.

Honors

Furness was elected a member of 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 ...

(1897), a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (1898), and a fellow of the

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 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 ...

(1902).

Personal

An 1894 article in ''The Oregonian'' described Furness as "the most artistically tattooed man in the world." It reported that during a long trip to Japan, he had been heavily tattooed: " splendid representation of the Goddess of Love covers his chest, and the God of Thunder illuminates his back. Snakes and birds by the dozen mark his arms and thighs. A pagoda is designed on one shoulder and a fearful and wonderful collection of geometrical designs covers the other shoulder. A Chinese boat is tattooed on one leg, and a dragon looks from the other." His expeditions were underwritten by his father – his late mother had been heiress to an iron-making fortune and his father was a successful author. He never married, and lived at " Lindenshade," his parents' house in Wallingford. He provided some of the illustrations for the book ''String Figures and How to Make Them'' (1906), by his sister, ethnologist

Caroline Furness Jayne Caroline Augusta Furness Jayne (July 3, 1873 – June 23, 1909) was an American ethnologist who published the first book on string figures in 1906 titled ''String Figures: A Study of Cat's Cradle in Many Lands''. Early life and education J ...

. Following the deaths of Caroline in 1909 and her husband

Horace Jayne Horace Fort Jayne (5 March 1859, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 9 July 1913, Wallingford, Pennsylvania) was an American zoölogist and educator. Biography He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania ( A.B., 1879; M.D., 1882), and studied ...

in 1913, their teenage children – Kate Furness Jayne and Horace H. F. Jayne – lived with him at " Lindenshade." During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and organized distribution of medical supplies. He donated the land for the Helen Kate Furness Free Library in Wallingford, named for his mother. He began collecting and editing his father's letters, but ill health forced him to abandon the project. It was completed by his nephew Horace.Horace H. F. Jayne, "Preface." William Henry Furness III grave

He is buried at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia in the Furness family plot, Section T, Lot 7.

Works

Stone Money of Uap, 1903, Jayne, String Figures, p

* "Glimpses of Borneo," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'', vol. 35 (1897

* ''Life in the Luchu Islands'' (Philadelphia: 1899

* ''Folk-Lore in Borneo: A Sketch'' (Wallingford, Pennsylvania: 1899

* ''The Home-Life of Borneo Head-Hunters: Its Festivals and Folk-Lore'' (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1902

* (Co-authored with H. M. Hiller, Jr.) ''Notes of a Trip to the Veddahs of Ceylon'' (London, 1902

* "The Stone Money of Uap, West Caroline Islands," ''Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Museum'', vol. 1, no. 1 (1904

* ''The Island of Stone Money, Uap of the Carolines'' (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1910

* "A Visit to a Head-Hunter of Borneo, 1901," ''The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art'', Volume 1: ''China, Japan, and the Islands of the Pacific'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914

*"Observations on the Mentality of Chimpanzees and Orang-utans," ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'', vol. 55, no. 3 (April 1916

Gallery

File:Thomas Eakins, The Agnew Clinic 1889.jpg, The Agnew Clinic (1889) by

. Furness is in the top row, center, leaning far to the side. File:Man and woman (slaves) of the Pimlingai tribe, Uap (Carolines).jpg, "Man and Wife of the 'Pimlingai,' or Slave Class," (1903), photograph by Furness. Illustration from ''The Island of Stone Money: Uap of the Carolines'' (1910). File:The Tattooing of the Men of Fashion, Furness, The Island of Stone Money, 1910, p.158.jpg, "The Tattooing of the Men of Fashion," drawing by Furness. Illustration from ''The Island of Stone Money: Uap of the Carolines'' (1910). File:Lindenshade Philadelphia Suburban Homes 1889.jpg, " Lindenshade" (1873, demolished 1940), Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Design of the house is attributed to Furness's uncle, the architect Frank Furness. File:HK Furness Library.JPG, Helen Kate Furness Free Library (1916), Wallingford, Pennsylvania.

References

* Adria H. Katz, "Borneo to Philadelphia: The Furness-Hiller-Harrison Collections," ''Expedition Magazine'', vol. 30, no. 1, (Spring 1988

External links

Furness, Harrison and Hiller expedition records
from University of Pennsylvania Archives.

from University of Pennsylvania Museum.
Objects donated by William H. Furness 3rd
from Online Collection, University of Pennsylvania Museum. {{DEFAULTSORT:Furness, William Henry, III 1866 births 1920 deaths Furness family Physicians from Philadelphia People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania United States Army Medical Corps officers American explorers American ethnographers Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Ethnography Writers from Philadelphia St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni Harvard University alumni Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Headhunting accounts and studies Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Members of the Philadelphia Club