Sir John Burton Cleland, 1878-1971
Papers, principally relating to anthropology and medicine.
SR 572 C61
Access to Manuscript
Collections
Biographical note
Sir John Cleland graduated in medicine from Adelaide and Sydney
universities and, after appointments at Prince Alfred Hospital, the
University of Sydney, London Hospital, as Government Bacteriologist
in Western Australia and at the Bureau of Microbiology in Sydney,
was in 1920 appointed Professor of Pathology at the University of
Adelaide, a position he held until 1948. He was awarded the
CBE for services to medicine in 1949 and knighted in 1964.
Over his long career Cleland contributed with distinction not
only to his particular professional field of pathology but to
botany,  zoology, mycology and
anthropology, and was an active field naturalist and
ornithologist. He was a member of the University of Adelaide
Board of Anthropological Research and took part in a number of the
Board’s expeditions in the 1930s, with a particular interest in the
physical anthropology of the indigenous people of Australia and
their environment. As Deputy Chairman of the Aborigines Protection
Board he also participated in field visits to missions and
locations in the 1930s and 1940s.
These papers, deposited with the Library after Sir John’s death,
principally reflect Cleland’s work and interest in the study and
welfare of indigenous Australians, with some also relating to his
interest in medical history. Additional collections of his
published papers on expeditions and anthropology, medicine, and
vascular plants and fungi will be found in the University
Collection.
This series list replaces the original item listing made on
receipt of the papers, as that list failed to recognise the essence
of the collection or connections between component parts, provided
no dates or indication of format or extent, made no distinction
between papers by Cleland or others, and included unhelpful and
sometimes misleading entries.
Contents
1. Letters from ‘persons of note’ and ‘prominent persons’.
1905-44. 3 cm
[As collected and titled by Cleland, with a partial list
provided by him. Most are from the field of medicine, and
some of the letters are to Dr E.A. Johnston]
2. Correspondence (mainly
letters received by Cleland). 1912-59. 8 cm.
3. Letters from Olive Pink. May 1930 – December 1934. 2
cm.
See also her 1941 report on the Coroner’s inquest
into the murder of an aboriginal man in Series
7
4. Note books of observations and experiments on
expeditions to Macdonald Downs 1930, Cockatoo Creek 1931, Mt Liebig
1932, [Ernabella] 1933, Ooldea 1939.
1930-39. 6 v.
[Notes variously on physical characteristics of individuals and
groups, blood groups/sera, plants and birds (Ernabella) and terrain
from Oodnadatta to Ernabella, names/language (Andingerri tribe,
Ooldea). Some undated or not clearly identified, and some
notebooks possibly used for different expeditions]
5. Reports by Cleland on anthropological expeditions
1933-39. 1 cm.
[Comprising brief summary of Board for Anthropological Research
expeditions 1926-39; reports on the Mt Liebig expedition 1932, 7th
BAR expedition to the North-West of South Australia [Musgrave
Ranges] 1933 and the 10th-12th Board expeditions [Granites 1936,
Flinders Ranges 1937, Ooldea 1937; and research proposal and
budget (May 1938) and brief report and account of expenditure (to
February 1939) of the Joint Research of the University of Adelaide
and the Division of Anthropology of Harvard University.
File also includes undated notes (by JBC?) on visit to the Carnegie
Corporation, Yale, Berkeley and Kodak, and a list of frames in
films made on Macdonald Downs expedition; and copy of an article on
the Board for Anthropological Research 1957]
See also Series 2 for
correspondence re the C.P. Mountford expedition of 1940 to
investigate to totemic sites in Central Australia and the Michael
Lerner Australian-New Zealand expedition to make a film of the
‘Aboriginal life of Central Australia’ for the American Museum
1938-39.
6. Reports on visits to and inspections of missions and
‘native institutions’ by Cleland (most on behalf of the Aborigines
Protection Board) and on matters of Board policy and the welfare of
Aboriginal Australians. 1938-48 and undated. 2 cm.
[Visits were to Kingston, northern missions, Ernabella, Koonibba
and institutions in Western Australia. Other papers include
memo re trial of eight aboriginals at Pt Augusta 1943, draft of
policy of the Aborigines Protection Board, section of report
covering ‘The preparation of native boys and girls for future
citizenship’, and paper and newspaper cutting re ‘The rocket
bomb range and the natives of South Australia’]
7. Reports on visits to
missions and locations by others, and copies of correspondence
memoranda etc. received by the Aborigines Protection Board.
1929, 1937-60. 4 cm
Papers include reports from or on:
- Finke River Mission 1929 (deaths only) and 1936-37 (F.H.
Albrecht)
- Point Pearce 1938 (responses to report of deputation to Point
Pearce)
- Nepabunna 1939 (Constance Cooke)
- Ooldea 1939 (R.M. Berndt) and 1940-41 (Charles Duguid,
Constance Cooke and Supt of Reserves)
- United Aborigines Mission 15th annual report c.1940
(pamphlet)
- Wardang Island (typhoid fever) 1941 (K.M. Wilkinson)
- Coroner’s inquest into murder of an aboriginal man 1941 (Olive
Pink)
- Salvation Army home 1941 (results of T.B. tests on
residents)
- Swan Reach, Point McLeay and Pt Augusta 1942 (Supt of
Reserves)
- Abuse of natives at the Granites 1942 (V.C.Hall)
- Taking of dog scalps 1942 (J.R.B. Love)
- [‘Pay-back’] murder of aboriginal man Alick 1945 (J.R.B.
Love)
- replies from Ooldea, Finnis Springs, Umeewarra, Ernabella and
Koonibba to APB questionnaire on nutrition 1945
- Umeewarra and Ernabella missions 1946 (Charles Duguid)
- Encounter Bay tribe 1945 (copy of letter Royal Geographical
Society of Australasia, S.A. branch, to S.A. Museum re
memorial and correct name of the tribe)
- ‘Visits to institutions for education of aboriginals and
half-castes’ 1948 (Dr Black)
- agenda papers from Missions – Administration Conference
1953
- ‘Employment of Aborigines on cattle stations’ (F.W.
Albrecht)
- APB correspondence and memoranda 1938-45 and 1960, including
pro forma report upon mission stations and instructions to
patrol officers; Royal Anthropological Institute, London
‘Memorandum on the condition of the Australian Aboriginal’ 1939;
resume of the Board’s interim report for 1949; address of the
Secretary to the Conference on Australian Aboriginals 1960; also
report of the Aborigines’ Friends Association on ‘Land Trust for
Native Races’, lists of acts and regulations relating to
Aboriginals in South Australia and an undated and unsigned memo
re ‘Economic effects of de-tribalisation of Musgrave Range
natives’.
8. Papers and addresses by Cleland on Aboriginal Australians
(reprints, ms and typescripts, some with notes). 1934-57
(most undated). 5 cm. Papers include:
- ‘The aborigines and law’ (with notes on sources quoted)
- ‘Some aspects of the problem of the Australian Aboriginal and
his descendants in South Australia’
- ‘The Australian Aboriginal: his food and how he gets I’, ‘The
ecology of the natives of South and Central Australia’, ‘The
ecology of the original inhabitants of Tasmania and South
Australia’ [published 1939 in the Papers and Proceedings of the
Royal Society of Tasmania as ‘Some aspects of the ecology of the
Aboriginal inhabitants of Tasmania and Southern Australia’] and
similar papers on food, habitat and environment (with notes on
sources)
- ‘The Australian Aboriginals’ medicines, narcotics and diseases’
(with notes on sources)
- ‘Some early contacts with our natives’
- [speech at] launch of appeal for funds the Hermannsburg mission
(for water pipeline) 1935
- [speech at] exhibition of Central Australian watercolours by
Otto Pareroultja 1950
- ‘Who are our natives and where did they come from?’ 1952
- ‘The place of the Aborigines in Australia’s Society’ 1957
- ‘Aborigines and land tenure’ 1965 (Australian Journal of
Science 28:4)
- ‘Our natives: a plea’ 1968 (letter to Advertiser 24
May)
- ‘How long have the aborigines been isolated in Australia?’ 1970
(Mankind 7:3)
- review of Daisy Bates The passing of the Australian
aborigines
- brief undated papers and notes on blood-letting, dreams,
corroborees and the incidence of cancer
- miscellaneous notes and extracts from sources used in preparing
these papers, especially on environment and law.
9. Daisy Bates Memorial Committee. Correspondence and
newspaper cuttings re the Fund, use and publication of the papers,
and the award of Memorial Prizes for projects by schoolchildren on
aboriginal life. 1951-53, 1960-61. 1 cm.
10. Newspaper and magazine cuttings, principally general
articles re Aboriginal Australians. 1934, 1947-48, 1951
(re Flinders Chase), 1953, 1955, 1959 (Stuart Royal
Commission), 1960 (proposed memorial to Ernest Kramer). 2
cm.
11. Contributions by Cleland on medical, botanic and
ornithological subjects (reprints, photocopies and journal
issues). 1906-70. 4 cm.
[Includes his report as Cancer Research Scholar 1904-05, pamphlet
on ‘Boomerang’ Leg 1919, Archibald Watson Memorial Lecture
1950 and ‘Reminiscences of 1920 and thereabouts’ 1966]
12. Obituaries 1971 and draft entry in 1966 Who’s
Who. 1 cm.
13. ‘Medical pictures and notes’. Collection of
popular articles, illustrations, photographs, cartoons etc.
relating to the history of medicine. 3 cm.
14. Reprints of papers by A.A. Abbie, Joseph Birdsell,
J.R. Casley-Smith, H.M. Cooper, H.H. Finlayson, Edmund Gill, C.J.
Hackett, F.R. Irvine, Ursula McConnel, R.T. Simmons and T.G.H.
Strehlow on the physical anthropology and material culture of
Aboriginal Australians. 1947-59. 16 items.
15. Publications on Aboriginal culture and social issues.
1932-59. 10 items
[Aborigines Friends’ Association, Special report on native
problems in Central Australia, 1932
Aboriginal Friends Association, The Aborigines: a Commonwealth problem and responsibility. 1934.
Catherine Berndt, Women’s changing ceremonies in northern Australia L’Homme 1, 1950
R.M. Berndt and C.H. Berndt, Discovery of pottery in north-eastern
Arnhemland Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute lxxvii, July-December 1947
C. Hoff, The Australian native, The Luther League Monitor June 1932
Gordon Rowe, A century of service to the Aborigines at Point
McLeay, S.A. [reprint from 101st annual report of the
Aborigines Friends’ Association] [1959]
T.G.H. Strehlow Dark and white Australians [1958]
Norman B. Tindale Results of the Harvard-Adelaide Universities
Anthropological Expedition, 1938-39 (1-4), 1940-41]
Note: the 6 items listed below have now been
catalogued separately:
F.W. Albrecht, The natural food supply of the Australian
Aborigines
Ronald M. Berndt, Social anthropological survey of the
Warburton, Blackstone and Rawlinson ranges [report] March
1959
The National Aborigines Day Observance Committee in association
with The National Missionary Council of Australia, Call to national
observance Ministers’ Bulletin 43, May 1960
H.K. Fry, Dieri legends (1-2) Folk-Lore xlviii, June and
September 1937
Nganyintjanya Ernabella News Letter August 1943
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