Augustus Pitt Rivers | |
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| Born | Augustus Henry Lane Fox (1827-04-14)14 April 1827 |
| Died | 4 May 1900(1900-05-04) (aged 73) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ethnology,archaeology |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1845–1882 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Battles / wars | Crimean War |
Lieutenant GeneralAugustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt RiversFRS FSA FRAI (14 April 1827 – 4 May 1900) was an English officer in theBritish Army,ethnologist, andarchaeologist.[1] He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections. His international collection of about 22,000 objects was the founding collection of thePitt Rivers Museum at theUniversity of Oxford, while his collection of English archaeology from the area around Stonehenge forms the basis of the collection atThe Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire.[2]
Throughout most of his life he used the surname Lane Fox, under which his early archaeological reports are published. In 1880 headopted the Pitt Rivers name on inheriting from Lord Rivers (a cousin) an estate of more than 32,000 acres inCranborne Chase.[3]
His family name is often spelled as "Pitt-Rivers".[4] His middle name is sometimes spelled as "Lane-Fox".[5][6]
BornAugustus Henry Lane-Fox atBramham cum Oglethorpe nearWetherby inYorkshire,[7] he was the son of William Lane-Fox and Lady Caroline Douglas, sister ofGeorge Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton. The politiciansGeorge Lane-Fox andSackville Lane-Fox were his uncles.
In 1880, Lane Fox inherited the estates of his cousin,Horace Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers and with it the remainder of theRichard Rigby fortune. It was "an event that transformed his life". He wasrequired to adopt the surname Pitt-Rivers as part of the bequest 'either alone or in addition to his or their surname'.[8] On 3 February 1853,[9] Pitt-Rivers (still under the surname Fox) married The Honourable Alice Margaret Stanley (1828–1910), daughter of the politicianEdward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley and of the women's education campaignerHenrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley. Alice had a slew of siblings active in the public issues of the day, several of whom married into prominent families. The Pitt Rivers Museum suggests that some of the founding collection, particularly some Indian items, may have come from John Constantine Stanley (1837–1878), younger brother of Alice.[10]
Augustus and Alice had nine children who reached adulthood; they were born between 1855 and 1866.[11] As they were all born before Augustus took the new surname in 1880, their births are registered under the name of Fox (or Lane-Fox).
Augustus' descendants include his grandson, anthropologist, eugenicist, and anti-SemiteGeorge Pitt-Rivers, who was interned in 1940 underDefence Regulation 18B.[14] George's children includedMichael Pitt-Rivers, and his brother, anthropologist andethnographerJulian A. Pitt-Rivers. A further generation includes Augustus's great-great-grandson,equestrianWilliam Fox-Pitt.
Lane Fox had a long and successful military career as astaff officer. He was educated at theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst, for six months at the age of fourteen and was commissioned into theGrenadier Guards on 16 May 1845 as anensign.[15] In the course of a thirty-two-year military career, albeit much interrupted by leave, he only once saw major front line action, at theBattle of Alma in 1854. Soon after the battle, he was found unfit for active service and returned to England.[8] In 1851 he became a member of the committee to experiment and report on the respective merits of the army's smoothbore muskets. He was appointed to Woolwich to instruct in the use of the newMinié rifle in 1852. Subsequently, he was largely responsible for founding the Hythe school of Musketry in Kent and became its principal instructor, revising itsInstruction of Musketry manual. The remainder of his service career revolved around musketry instruction and in 1858 he published a paperOn the improvement of the rifle as a weapon for general use.[16][17] He bought a promotion tocaptain on 2 August 1850.[18] He was promoted to thebrevet rank oflieutenant-colonel of the army "for distinguished Service in the Field" during theCrimean War.[19] On 15 May 1857, hebought the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Grenadier Guards.[20] The thenbrevet-major Lane Fox was appointed a member of the Fifth Class of theOrder of the Medjidie in 1858 for "distinguished services before the enemy during the [Crimean War]".[21] He was promoted tocolonel on 22 January 1867[22] andmajor-general in 1877.[23] Pitt Rivers retired in 1882 and was accorded the honorary rank oflieutenant-general.
Pitt Rivers' interests in archaeology and ethnology began in the 1850s, during postings overseas, and he became a noted scientist while he was a serving military officer. His interest began with the evolution of the rifle, which extended to other weapons and tools, and he became a collector of artefacts illustrating the development of human invention. His collection became famous, and, after being exhibited in 1874–1875 at theBethnal Green Museum, London, was presented in 1885 to the University of Oxford.[24] He was elected, in the space of five years, to theEthnological Society of London (1861), theSociety of Antiquaries of London (1864) and theAnthropological Society of London (1865).
In 1867, Pitt Rivers left full-time military service and went onhalf pay.[25] The same year, he visited an archaeological excavation being carried out in theYorkshire Wolds by CanonWilliam Greenwell, librarian ofDurham Cathedral and an established archaeologist, to whom he may have been introduced by mutual friendsGeorge Rolleston orAlbert Way. Pitt Rivers received his first instruction in excavation from Greenwell, and later described himself as Greenwell's pupil.[25][26] Greenwell viewed archaeology as a serious scholarly process of assembling evidence on periods which lacked written records, contrasted to the "ignorant and greedy spirit of mere curiosity-hunting"; views that would influence Pitt Rivers' own approach.[27][25]
By the time he retired, he had amassed ethnographic collections numbering tens of thousands of items from all over the world. Influenced by the evolutionary writings ofCharles Darwin andHerbert Spencer, he arranged them typologically and (within types) chronologically. He viewed archaeology as an extension of anthropology and, as consequence, built up matching collections of archaeological and ethnographic objects to show longer developmental sequences to support his views on cultural evolution.[28] This style of arrangement, designed to highlight evolutionary trends in human artefacts, was a revolutionary innovation in museum design.
Pitt Rivers' ethnological collections form the basis of thePitt Rivers Museum which is still one ofOxford's attractions. His researches and collections cover periods from theLower Paleolithic to Roman and medieval times, and extend all over the world.[29] The Pitt Rivers Museum curates more than half a million ethnographic and archaeological artefacts, photographic and manuscript collections from all parts of the world. The museum was founded in 1884 when the university accepted the gift of more than 20,000 artefacts from Pitt Rivers. The university awarded him theDoctorate of Civil Law in 1886, and he was later named a Fellow of the Royal Society.[23] The collections continue to grow, and the museum has been described as one of the "six great ethnological museums of the world".[30]
Pitt Rivers' Wessex Collection is housed inThe Salisbury Museum, not far fromStonehenge. The Wessex Gallery of archaeology opened in 2014, funded by theHeritage Lottery Fund and other sources. Pitt Rivers and other early archaeologists such asWilliam Stukeley who first investigated the prehistory of Wiltshire,Cranborne Chase,Avebury and Stonehenge, are celebrated in the gallery.
The estates Pitt Rivers inherited in 1880 contained a wealth of archaeological material from theRoman andSaxon periods. He excavated these over seventeen seasons, from the mid-1880s until his death. His approach was highly methodical by the standards of the time, and he is widely regarded as the first scientific archaeologist to work in Britain. His most important methodological innovation was his insistence thatall artefacts, not just beautiful or unique ones, be collected and catalogued. This focus on everyday objects as the key to understanding the past broke decisively with earlier archaeological practice, which verged on treasure hunting. It is Pitt Rivers' most important, and most lasting, scientific legacy. His work inspiredMortimer Wheeler, among others, to add to the scientific approach of archaeological excavation techniques.
Following the passage of theAncient Monuments Protection Act 1882, Pitt Rivers became the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments: a post created by anthropologist and parliamentarianJohn Lubbock who married Pitt Rivers' daughter, Alice. Charged with cataloguing archaeological sites and protecting them from destruction, he worked with his customary methodical zeal but was hampered by the limitations of the law, which gave him little real power over the landowners on whose property the sites stood. On the advice of Pitt-Rivers,Kit's Coty House andLittle Kit's Coty House, Kent, were among the first ancient British remains to be protected by the state. Railings were erected around the stones there to prevent vandalism.[31]
Pitt Rivers was a leading member of theWiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, and was president of the society from 1890[32] to 1893.[33]
The Rushmore estate nearTollard Royal in Wiltshire was part of his 1880 inheritance, and there he created theLarmer Tree Gardens, apleasure garden which was opened to the public in 1885.[34]
In 1884 he served asHigh Sheriff of Dorset.[35]
Pitt Rivers was an advocate forcremation. Even though many people believed that it was immoral to destroy a corpse, the cremation movement favoured a practical way to dispose of bodies. Pitt Rivers was cremated after his death in 1900.
Among the publications of August Pitt Rivers are:
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Pitt-Rivers, Augustus Henry Lane-Fox".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 678.
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