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MS 4352

Frederick D. McCarthy and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies



ACCESS

Closed access, copying and quotation - Principal's permission required.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

Date range: 1963-1965

Extent: 0.09 metres (1 box)

This collection was deposited in the Institute by Frederick D. McCarthy in 1987.

In 1964 Frederick David McCarthy was appointed Foundation Principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (AIAS), now the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). He held this position until his retirement in 1971.

This collection contains papers and correspondence relating to McCarthy’s appointment and to the the early years of the AIAS. It includes documentation relating to the position of Principal, minutes of meetings, information about other candidates and papers on an urgent work program for the Institute.

These papers were originally held in MS 3513 ‘Papers of Frederick David McCarthy’ and were moved to this collection in 2005 in accordance with correspondence found on the Library’s files. At the same time the access conditions were changed in accordance with McCarthy’s instructions to remove all restrictions on the collection thirty years after the date of the correspondence.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Frederick David McCarthy was born in 1906 and began work in 1920 at the Australian Museum, Sydney. In 1933 he enrolled at Sydney University in Anthropology under Professor A.P. Elkin. McCarthy and his wife, Elsie Bramell, were the first professionally trained anthropologists/archaeologists in an Australian museum.

In 1964 McCarthy was appointed Foundation Principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, a position he held until he retired in 1971. An Act of Parliament in 1964 established the Institute, with a twenty-two member Council and a foundation membership of one hundred, replacing the Interim Council appointed in 1961.

The Institute is devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies and is Australia's premier institution for information about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples..

In 1989, a new Act involved a name change to Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the creation of a Research Advisory Committee and the reduction of the size of the Council to nine members, four of whom are elected while five are appointed by the Minister.

References:

AIATSIS web site

MS 3513 ‘Papers of Frederick David McCarthy

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RELATED WORKS

Important: Before you click on the links below, please read our sensitivity message

For further biographical information about Frederick McCarthy consult the finding aid for MS3513 'Papers of Frederick David McCarthy'.  Other works by and about McCarthy are held by the Institute.

For further information about the Institute consult the Institute's web page or search under Australian Institute Aboriginal Studies in the Institute's Mura® online catalogue.

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Finding Aid compiled by J. Churches, February 2005