Ursula Hope McConnel

McConnel came to anthropology through the study of psychology, which she began at the age of twenty-five. In 1918, she graduated from Queensland University with first class honours in philosophy and in 1923 began a doctorate in anthropology at University College, London, although health issues forced her to return to Australia and she did not complete the degree. Her interest in dreams led to an interest in mythology, particularly in primitive beliefs and then, in the late 1920s, to the study of the Wik-Mungkana people of the Cape York area. Under the supervision of first A. Radcliffe-Brown and then A.E. Elkin at the University of Sydney, she made several field trips to the area between 1927 and 1934, and published numerous articles in Oceania and a book, Myths of the Munkan.

Continue reading

Ada Armytage

Ada Armytage’s photographs document life within the stately Como House (which her father owned) and among the social elite of her time. Ada’s photographs and her sisters’ diaries, letters and journals make up the Armytage family archive, which preserves the significant moment in history.

Continue reading

Lillemor Rachlew

Lillemor Rachlew was one of four Norwegians who were the first women to set foot on the Antarctic mainland in 1937, for whom the Four Ladies Bank in Prydz Bay was named. On an earlier voyage to Antarctica Rachlew took photographs, whichwere published in 1934. Sections from her diary were preserved, the earliest examples of a woman’s writing about her travels in Antarctica.

Continue reading