Elsie Bramell: A Pioneer in Museum Anthropology and Australian Archaeology

Elsie Bramell and Fred McCarthy in the Australian Museum Anthropology Department 1933. Photographer Anthony Musgrave. Australian Museum Archives AMS514_VA180_8. Reproduction Rights Australian Museum

When Elsie Bramell (1909-1985) began working at the Australian Museum in 1933 she was the first woman and the first university educated person to take up a scientific position in the Anthropology Department. She was appointed Scientific Assistant, senior to her colleague and future husband Fred McCarthy, who had worked Continue Reading

Courtney Letts de Espil: Borden-Field Museum Alaska Arctic Expedition of 1927

“One must wear white in stalking Arctic game,” quips author Courtney Letts de Espil (Mrs. John Borden) in her 1928 book The Cruise of the Northern Light, which is a 317-page account of the Borden-Field Museum Alaska Arctic Expedition of 1927.1 Public Excitement As The Expedition Launches While newspaper accounts Continue Reading

Mina Benson Hubbard: Labrador Mapping Expedition

Mina Hubbard: The Woman Who Mapped Labrador

In an epic story of love, trials, and vindication at the dawn of the 20th century, the farm-raised daughter of European immigrants to Canada became the first white woman to explore and map the backcountry of Labrador. An Unexpected Pioneer Mina Benson Hubbard’s background gave no indication of her pioneering Continue Reading