Post #502302 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Mon, Jan 4, 2010 5:28 PM

The Frank Burnett Collection of South Seas artifacts:

After earning his fortune in grain on the Prairies and real estate in Vancouver at the turn of the century, Frank Burnett retired to South Seas where he wrote travel books and collected ethnological specimens. In 1927, Burnett presented his 1,200 item collection to the University of British Columbia where it was housed in the Library. The collection formed the core around which the Museum of Anthropology was established twenty years later. UBC's first anthropologist, Harry Hawthorn, and his wife, Audrey, the first curator of the Museum, were given responsibility for the care, use and expansion of Burnett's assemblage.

Collection consists of two catalogues (1927, 1935) of ethnological specimens presented by Frank Burnett to UBC and minutes of the University of British Columbia's President's Committee on the Museum (1941-1944).

http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/u_arch/burnett.html

The following are photographs of the collection taken in the 1920s at Frank Burnett's home. Larger, high-definition photographic prints and scans can be ordered online from the City of Vancouver Archives:
http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/archives/webpubhtml/qbes/ws_photocombined.htm
(just search on "Frank Burnett" and they will give you the links for reproductions)

:up: Frank Burnett sitting amid his collection.

:up: his schooner, the Tropic Bird, on which he travelled the South Seas.

It would be interesting to find out if one can make appointments with UBC to view the collection.