Adventurer, Academic, Industrialist: Louis Pierre Ledoux 1936 New Guinea Expedition
In early 1936, on recommendation by American anthropologist Margaret Mead, Louis Pierre Ledoux, recent Harvard University graduate, headed to the lower eastern Sepik River of Papua New Guinea to study the Murik people.
The results of his self-funded expedition is an extraordinary collection of hundreds of artifacts, photographs, manuscripts, diaries, and letters left untouched for 85 years.
|
LOT 26:
2 Letter of Introduction 1935 for Ledoux
more...
|
|
|
Sold for: $50
Start price:
$
50
Estimated price :
$100 - $150
Buyer's Premium: 28%
More details
|
2 Letter of Introduction 1935 for Ledoux
2 Page Letter of introduction, December 1935, from the Commonwealth Treasurer (Australian) R.G. Casey to the Administrator of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea ("TNG"), Brigadier General V.R. McNicoll.
The letter refers to a phone call between the Australian Treasurer R.G. Casey and Louis Pierre Ledoux, and encloses a letter of introduction from the Australian Secretary to the Prime Minister, Frank Strahan, to be given to Brigadier General McNicoll, the administrator of New Guinea based in Rabaul, New Britain. Secretary Strahan's letter of introduction mentions Louis Pierre Ledoux and the "son of an influential American with many Australian connections, and a personal friend of R. G. Casey, the Commonwealth Treasurer." R. G. Casey was appointed Treasurer of the Commonwealth (of Australia) in 1935 until 1939. In 1940, he gave up his seat in parliament to be appointed the first Australian Minister to the United States. General McNicoll served as Administrator of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea from 1934 until the Japanese invasion in 1942. He was based out of Rabaul, New Britain and was knighted for the relief work he organized following the volcanic eruption that destroyed Rabaul in 1937. Frank Strahan served as Secretary to the Prime Minister from 1935-1949.
Date: 1930's
Material: Paperwork
Provenance: Louis Pierre Ledoux Collection
