A circa l916 greetings card featuring the popular May Gibbs Gumnut Babies going off to war is included in the Australian art and artists latest list from Douglas Stewart Fine Books , Melbourne. It has the printed signature of Gibbs , the renowned author and ilustrator of children's books , including Snugglepot and Cuddlepie .
The offering includes the 1984 British Museum Press descriptive catalogue , a scholarly and well illustrated work covering material collected by ethnologist and anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon during expeditions in l888 and l898.
Interested in coral reefs and marine biology on his first expedition, he was attracted to anthropology .
Wikipedia states that returning home , he published many papers dealing with the indigenous people, urging the importance of securing all possible information about them and kindred peoples before they were overwhelmed by civilisation.
It was his belief objects he collected would have been destroyed by Christian missionaries who were determined to eradicate the religious traditions and ceremonies of the native islanders.
He had filmed ceremonial dances and in 1901 published Head-hunters : Black ,White and Brown . Other works included A History of Anthropology and Canoes of Oceania ,Honolulu .
In 1914 he carried out a three month survey of the southern coast of Papua accompanied by his zoologist daughter , Kathleen, who took what were described as covert photographs.
