Identity area
Reference code
MSS.Afr.s.1802
Title
Letters from Mary Henrietta Kingsley
Date(s)
- 1896-1899 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
19 letters (117 ff.)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
englische Forschungsreisende in Afrika und Autorin (1862-1900)
Archival history
Mary Henrietta Kingsley was born in Islington, London on the 13 October 1862. A niece of the clergyman and author Charles Kingsley, she led a secluded life until age 30, when she set out alone to visit West Africa and to study African religion and law. She hoped this research would help her complete a book left unfinished by her deceased father, George Henry Kingsley. During 1893 and 1894 Mary Kingsley visited Cabinda, a coastal district of Angola; Old Calabar in southeast Nigeria; and the island of Fernando Po (now Bioko), part of Equatorial Guinea, near the Cameroon coast. Around the lower Congo River she collected specimens of beetles and freshwater fish for the British Museum. Returning to Africa in December 1894, Kingsley visited the French Congo and then journeyed to Gabon. In this area, parts of which had never before been visited by a European, she had many adventures and narrow escapes travelling up the Ogoou River through the country of the Fang, a tribe known for cannibalism. She then visited Corisco Island, off Gabon, and also climbed Mount Cameroon. Kingsley returned to England in November 1895 with a collection of valuable zoological specimens, three of which were entirely new and were named after her. Between 1896 and 1899 she lectured widely throughout her homeland. Kingsley died on the 3 June 1900 in Simonstown, near Cape Town, Cape Colony (now in South Africa) while nursing sick prisoners during the Boer War.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
19 autograph letters from Mary Kingsley to Professor and Mrs. E.B. Tylor dealing with various aspects of ju-ju and fetishism in West Africa.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Bodleian readers ticket required.
Conditions governing reproduction
Rights to access and re-use digital objects: Unknown Rights to access and re-use archival descriptive information: Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike No reproduction or publication of personal papers without permission. Contact the library in the first instance.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
English.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/ead-display/-/ead/pl/aicode/GB-161/type/fa/id/gb161-mss.afr.s.1802 The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room. Listed as no. 1224 inManuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994(Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
{{Data source}} Archive Portal Europe The library holds a card index of all manuscript collections in its reading room. Listed as no. 1224 inManuscript Collections in Rhodes House Library Oxford, Accessions 1978-1994(Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996).
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Kingsley, Mary (Creator)
- Kingsley, Mary (Subject)