Correspondence

Scope and Content

Roth's correspondence mainly relates to his research for the second edition of The Aborigines of Tasmania, and includes letters from his main Tasmanian contacts, James Backhouse Walker and John Watt Beattie. Both Walker and Beattie supplied Roth with a great deal of practical information, especially about Aboriginal tools and settlements, the history of relations between the Aboriginal Tasmanians and European settlers, and current status of the mixed race Aboriginals in Tasmania. There are also letters from the anthropologist E B Tylor, who wrote the prefaces to both editions of the book, and Sir William Turner who advised Roth on cranial measurements. This series also includes Roth's correspondence with staff at the Manchester Museum about the deposit of his collections there.