PAPERS OF BEATRICE MARY BLACKWOOD (1889–1975) PITT RIVERS MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Compiled by B. Asbury and M. Peckett, 2013-15 Box 1 Correspondence A-D Envelope A (Box 1) 1. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 20 May 1955. Summary: Acknowledging receipt of the Pitt Rivers Report for 1954. “The Museum as an institution seems beset with more difficulties than any other.” Giving details of the developing organisation of the Vancouver Museum and its index card system. Asking for a copy of Mr Bradford’s BBC talk on the “Lost Continent of Atlantis”. Notification that Mr Menzies’ health has meant he cannot return to work at the Museum. 2pp. 2. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 20 July 1955. Summary: Thanks for the “Lost Continent of Atlantis” information. The two Museums have similar indexing problems. Excavations have been resumed at the Great Fraser Midden at Marpole under Dr Borden, who has dated the site to 50 AD using Carbon-14 samples. 2pp. 3. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 12 June 1957. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report. News of Mr Menzies and his health. The Vancouver Museum is expanding into enlarged premises. “Until now, the City Museum has truly been a cultural orphan.” 1pp. 4. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 16 June 1959. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report. News of Vancouver Museum developments. News of Mr Menzies. 1pp. 5. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 8 April 1960. Summary: Comments on the news of Beatrice Blackwood’s official retirement. Mr Ainsworth quotes a poem about old age. Comments on Beatrice Blackwood’s plan for a trip across Canada and news of Mr Menzies. 2pp. 6. Letter from TH Ainsworth of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 19 September 1961. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report for 1959-60. Discussion about the activities of retirement. “This has been a busy year” for the Vancouver Museum. Another poem is enclosed, this time by Ainsworth himself. 2pp. 7. Letter from TH Ainsworth, previously of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 15 August 1963. Summary: Acknowledging a letter and the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report. Ainsworth has had a serious heart attack. A possibly unsatisfactory American successor to him has been appointed, but he still hopes Beatrice Blackwood will visit Vancouver one day. 1pp. 8. Letter from TH Ainsworth, previously of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 19 June 1968. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report. Ainsworth’s bad health. A new museum is being brought into existence, but it may have difficulties in building itself a reputation in comparison to those in the Old World. Ainsworth hopes to counteract this with displays of “native Indian culture”. 2pp. 9. Letter from TH Ainsworth, previously of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 28 September 1969. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report and pleased that “you are still going strong regardless of the shortage of staff”. Ainsworth’s health is bad and other personal news, but he has been able to visit the new Vancouver Centennial Museum, which is all that he had hoped for. Dr B Reynolds has been promoted to the position of Chief Ethnologist at the Museum of Man in Ottawa. 2pp. 10. Letter from TH Ainsworth, previously of the City Museum, Vancouver, Canada, to Beatrice Blackwood, 6 November 1970. Summary: Acknowledging the Pitt Rivers Museum Annual Report. Ainsworth’s health is still bad. In a separate mailing, he is donating to the Pitt Rivers Museum a series of photographs of stone figures with a description. He asks for “enlightenment”. Attached to this letter is a copy of Beatrice Blackwood’s reply, dated 11 December 1970, giving good feedback on a book of Ainsworth’s poems and some photographs of British Colombia. She looks forward to receiving the photographs of the stone figures, but is doubtful that anyone in Oxford will be able to help him with them. 2pp. 11. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken (formerly Miss Freire Marecco) in Stockbridge, Hampshire, to Beatrice Blackwood, 20 January 1948. Summary: She is sending a copy of Mena’s book for Beatrice Blackwood to borrow. Her theory that people from the northern Pueblos “were always patrilineal” and Spanish administration has been a major cause of change. (See also Box 18, Envelope 5, item 2, Envelope 8, item 4, Envelope 9, item 5, and Box 25, Envelope 2, item 8.) 1pp. 12. Postcard from Mrs Barbara Aitken, postmarked in Winchester, to Beatrice Blackwood, 2 June 1948. Summary: Thanks for a book and recommendations of two others on Navajo textiles and silverwork with suggestions of how to get copies. Her work on Spanish influence on pueblo culture and desire for Beatrice Blackwood to trace the executors of Mrs RB Townshend in order to acquire a Navajo dress. 1pc. 13. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 4 June (no year). Summary: Thanks for a reprinted paper and the Pitt Rivers Annual Report. She has had to give up working on a paper for the Folklore Society due to ill health. Her husband, Robert Aitken, is trying to source some agricultural equipment. (There is also a pencilled note in different handwriting with references to articles about playing cards.) 1pp. 14. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken in Stockbridge, Hampshire, to Beatrice Blackwood, 14 July (no year). Summary: An enquiry about “the date of the transition from head- hunting to scalp-taking in the Pueblo country” and for clarifications in her understanding of a book illustration. Some advice on a forthcoming trip to Spain. 1pp. 15. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 8 October (no year). Summary: Thanks for a letter and pleasure to know that Beatrice Blackwood transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1935. Apologies for not finishing the article about the “Pueblo Indian protest” and an update about her health. 1pp. 16. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 18 October (no year). Summary: Thanks for a letter and looking forward to meeting TK Penniman one day. Willingness for the Denver Art Museum to have “the catalogue notes” and a discussion of her research into weaving and Spanish influence. 1pp. 17. Postcard from Mrs Barbara Aitken, postmarked in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 25 April 1954. Summary: Thanks for the Report and encouragement to make a photographic record before moving to the “new building”. 1pc. 18. Postcard from Mrs Barbara Aitken, postmarked in Winchester, to Beatrice Blackwood (date illegible). Summary: Thanks for the Report, which she will send on to New Mexico, USA. 1pc. 19. Letter from Mrs Barbara Aitken in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 9 June (no year). Summary: Best wishes for Beatrice Blackwood’s retirement and thanks for the Report. Encouragement to claim some of the Navajo items she and her husband, Robert, have collected when they die. 1pp. 20. Letter from Robert Aitken in Broughton, Stockbridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 13 August 1962. Summary: Sending papers on basketwork. References to materials on ploughs and agricultural implements, and queries whether anyone at the Pitt Rivers Museum has ever researched methods of carrying loads. Asks for recommendations of good typists. 1pp. 21. Postcard from Violet Alford in Summertown, Oxford, to Beatrice Blackwood, 2 December 1942. Summary: Thanks for a letter to the Smithsonian Institution and promising to send the Secretary’s letter back shortly. 1pc. 22. Letter from Elisabeth Allard, Pinner, Middlesex (now Harrow), to Beatrice Blackwood, 2 November 1941. Summary: Thanks for a letter, apologies for not visiting last time she was in Oxford, but she has handed in her thesis and got a job in Bombay. (See also Box 21, Envelope 1, item 5.) 1pp. 23. Letter from Maude Rex Allen in Berkeley, California, USA, to Beatrice Blackwood (no date). Summary: Thanks for the Report and a note. Details of where she has moved to in California and reminiscences of Oxford. References to her “chosen subject”, chapters of her book and Prof and Mrs Cohn. 3pp. 24. Letter from Maude Rex Allen in Berkeley, California, USA, to Beatrice Blackwood, 10 June (no year). Summary: Thanks for a letter and Report. Personal news and the death of Mary Wheelwright of the Navajo Museum. A reference to Dr Cohn at Oxford and praise of the Pitt Rivers Museum. 2pp. 25. Letter from Anita (no surname) in Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, to Beatrice Blackwood, 26 December 1942. Summary: A personal letter, describing hitchhiking to get home for Christmas and someone’s controversial prosthetic nose. 1pp. 26. Letter from Anita (no surname) in Baruton, Midlothian, to Beatrice Blackwood, 21 June 1946. Summary: Asking for help and careers advice now that she has moved to Scotland. 2pp. 27. Letter from Anita (no surname) in Horsham, Sussex, to Beatrice Blackwood, 16 October 1946. Summary: Thanks for a letter, and an update about her movements and recent holiday. 1pp. Envelope B (Box 1) 1. Letter from Thomas H Bagshawe in Cambridge, to Beatrice Blackwood, 19 June 1951. Summary: Thanks for an article and Report, and update of his family’s health. 1pp. 2. Letter from Thomas H Bagshawe in Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, to Beatrice Blackwood, 28 June 1953. Summary: Thanks for a letter and Report. An update on his move to a very old house and his diminishing hopes of establishing the “English Museum”.