The Northern Tribes of Central Australia (Walter Roth’s Copy)

London: Macmillan and Co., 1904.
First Edition. Inscribed by Author

22cm x 14cm. xxxv, 784 pages, [2] advertisements, 1 folding table, 315 figures, 2 folding colour plates with overlays, 1 folding map. Original maroon cloth, gilt lettering, no jacket.

Spencer and Gillen’s expeditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries marked the beginning of modern anthropological fieldwork in Australia. They amassed an enormous collection of notebooks, films, audio recordings, illustrations, and photographs, which are well represented throughout. An important association copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by Spencer on behalf of both authors to Walter Edmund Roth (1861-1933). The year of publication was the year Roth became Queensland’s Chief Protector of Aboriginals, and the same year his Western Australian royal commission report documented abuses of Aboriginal people in the North-West. As an administrator Roth worked tirelessly for the betterment of Aboriginal rights against colonial and political forces, though controversy, including “payment” to take photographs of sexual positions for anthropological reasons, hounded him to resignation.

Some rubbing to cloth, splitting to tail of upper joint. Minor foxing. The folding plates tender at the folds. Fair Condition.

AU$2,500