Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
W. H. R. Rivers collection
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Collection
Reference code
RC0523
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1973-1919 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
6.5 cm of textual records and graphic material.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William Halse Rivers, psychologist and anthropologist, was born on 12 March 1864 in Luton, near, Chatham, Kent. He was educated at Tonbridge School and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1897 he became a lecturer in psychology at Cambridge; in 1902 he was elected a fellow of St. John's College. He was most interested in the relationship between mind and body, playing a fundamental role in the establishment of both experimental psychology and social anthropology as academic disciplines in Britain. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908 and won the Society's gold medal in 1914. He died on 4 June 1922. His father Henry Frederick Rivers was a speech therapist.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The collection consists of letters and cards. There are letters from: C. L. Dodgson (1832-1898), mathematician and author, also known as Lewis Carroll, 1873-74; Sir Francis Darwin (1848-1925), botantist and son of Charles Darwin; Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941), social anthropologist and author of The Golden Bough; Andrew Lang (1844-1912), scholar, folk-lorist, and author; Bernard Shaw (1856-1946), playwright; Arnold Bennett (1867-1931), novelist and playwright; and Sir Charles Scott Sherrington (1857-1952), neurologist and Nobel laureate. The collection also contains a letter from Arnold Bennett to Ellery Sidgwick, the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, introducing W.H.R. Rivers to him; an autograph of H. G. Wells (1866-1946), author, and other documents, including two sketches, one in pencil and one in pen and ink. There is also a typescript titled "Memories of Lewis Carroll" by Katharine Rivers, a sister of W. H. R. Rivers. The typescript was published in Library Research News, 3, no. 4 (January 1976).
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The collection was purchased at auction at Christies, April 1974 by Bertram Rota for McMaster University.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
There are no access restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals are expected
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
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Name access points
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Control area
Description record identifier
RC0523
