The Papers of Professor Andrew Arthur Abbie, 1905-76
SR
572.994
A124m
Biographical Note
Andrew Arthur Abbie was born in Kent in England in 1905, was
educated at Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School
at  Rochester.
His family emigrated to New Zealand and then to Sydney and after a
year in an insurance office he undertook his medical degree at the
University of Sydney, graduating in 1929 after a brilliant
undergraduate career. From 1929-32 he was Resident Medical
Officer at Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and from 1932-34 worked
with Sir Grafton Elliot Smith at University College London,
completing his Ph.D. in 1934. From 1936-41 he was Senior
Lecturer in Anatomy at the University of Sydney and, after war
service as a chemical warfare physiologist and in New Guinea, was
appointed Elder Professor of Anatomy and Histology at the
University of Adelaide, retiring from the Chair in 1970. In
Adelaide he was active as a member of the Board for Anthropological
Research and other anthropological societies as well as in medical
societies. He undertook a number of research expeditions with
the Board over the decade 1951-61 and published extensively on the
physical anthropology of Aborginal Australians in addition to his
other special field of neuroanatomy.
Contents Listing
Biographical
1. Curriculum vitae, notes on ancestry, list
of publications, issues of The Williamsonian (magazine of
the Rochester Mathematical School) 1934 and The Old Williamsonian
Club 1953, letters of reference and recommendation 1924 and
1932-33, programme of performance of the Prince Alfred Hospital
Amateur Dramatic Club 1932.
see also album of reports, photographs and
sketches, Series 13; school and medical
certificates, Series 11 and volume of obituaries,
Series 14.
Publications
2. Published papers. 1929-75. 15
cm.
including ‘University notes’ by Wotan [ie A.A. Abbie], 1929-32 and
the collected Studies in Physical Anthropology, 1975.
[Added to this series is a copy of the list of Abbie papers given
to the Institute of Aboriginal Affairs (MS 65) and the 1975
agreement with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies re
publication of Studies in Physical Anthropology II]
There is a listing of Abbie’s published papers in Series 1 above.
3. Miscellaneous addresses: Dental Eruption,
Navel Occasions, Space, Time and Optometry (all undated), address
to Presbyterian Girls School assembly 1966, and draft introduction
to his History of the Anatomy Department.
Correspondence
4. Letters received (personal) 1935-71.
5. Correspondence with Dr
A.C. Walker, Darwin Hospital, regarding a full-blood albino
child. 1969.
see also in album Series 13
6. Letters regarding publication and reviews of The
Original Australians, 1963-72.
see also in Series 13
7. Letters received regarding The Original
Australians, 1966 and 1969-75.
8. Letters by A.A. Abbie to the newspaper, 1974 and
undated
Diaries
9. Appointment diaries 1946-51, 1953-76.
10. Diary/daily record of trips and visits May-August
1950, May-July 1950 and March/July 1960 [in the same volume],
August-September 1963. 3 v.
Certificates and
other documents
11. School and medical certificates of A.A. Abbie,
1915-22 and 1929-51.
see also school reports in Series
13
12. Music and medical certificates of Freida Ruth
Heighway, 1918-22 and 1930-38.
[Ruth Heighway qualified as a medical practitioner in 1930,
became the first woman Doctor of Medicine of Sydney University and
was elected a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists in 1958. She married Professor Abbie in 1934
and died in 1962]
13. School reports, prize
lists (1917-22), Navy apprenticeship documents (1920-21),
war-time course papers (1943-44) folio
[Note: this album also contains photographs,
sketches by Abbie, articles about him and reviews of The
Original Australians, as listed in the relevant categories
above and below]
Obituaries
14. Obituaries and memoirs of A.A. Abbie (1976-84)
and others (alphabetical) 1934-68.
Photographs (personal)
in 13 above. Photographs of
Anatomical Society conferences 1962-68, Flinders Chase
(release of koalas by Professor T.G.B. Osborn 1923 and in 1963),
A.A. Abbie (c1960 and at opening of Abbie Museum of Anatomy).
see also photographs collected for research and
publications in Series 15-17
Research on Aboriginal
Australians
15. Photographs of Yuendumu people taken August
1951 (mainly men), 1955 and June 1957 (children).
16. Photographs [many used in publication The
Original Australians] of aboriginal rock art, dances, shelters,
food, weapons and tools, hunting scenes, making fire, etc.
undated, some identified (mainly Arnhem land); also prints of hand
and foot X-rays.
17. Photographs of ‘Indian Australoids’ sent to
Abbie by Carleton S. Coon, Massachusetts, 1981.
18. Maps of South Australia and the Northern
Territory showing aboriginal reserves, and map of Aboriginal
languages of Australia (O’Grady, Wurm and Hale, 1966)
19. Reports of the Aboriginal Affairs Board for
1969 and 1970 and miscellaneous articles on Aboriginal
Australians.
see also correspondence with Dr. A.C. Walker in
Series 5
Sketches
in 13 above. Original sketches by
A.A. Abbie - New Guinea 1944, Flinders Chase 1948.
These papers were received from Mrs A.A. Abbie in February
1999. An extensive collection of printed and typescript/draft
articles, talks, broadcasts and books by Abbie, together with
photographs and some drawings and diagrams, and reprints of papers
by others, were received by the Library in 1977. They appear
to have been listed as received and are in no discernible order:
there may be duplication both within that collection and between it
and these additions.
Another extensive collection of papers, consisting of
manuscript and typescript articles by Abbie and others and some
newspaper cuttings of articles re Aboriginal Australians, was also
apparently given to the Institute of Aboriginal Affairs - there is
a listing of these in Series 2 - and in 1977 Mrs Abbie donated
additional material (relating to Sir Grafton Elliot Smith?) to the
Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and
Ireland.
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