> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.wellcomecollection.org/collections-information/lQ0fMyP8xr8hWWJiQkfl/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.wellcomecollection.org/collections-information/lQ0fMyP8xr8hWWJiQkfl/transcribe-wellcome/research/people/collectors/jeffreys-mervyn-d.w..md).

# Jeffreys, Mervyn D.W.

Life dates: 1890–1975. South African anthropologist. Colonial administrator in Nigeria and Cameroon.

![](/files/dXTLR9jMiI5ZWqfduyVO)

(Image source: Detail from Photograph of International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences delegates at University College London, main quadrangle. 30 July 1934. [RAI archives](https://historywiki.therai.org.uk/index.php?title=File:Jeffreys,_Mervyn_David_Waldegrave.jpg), A62/ 192.​)

Material acquired via Jeffreys includes ethnographic collections originating from (confirmed so far) Aro, Ibibio, Efik peoples in southern Nigeria and Cameroon. Collections from other peoples may also be included. Material was sent to WHMM in large shipments from c.1927 to c.1938.

Contemporary with Jeffreys' collecting in 1932, peoples of southern Nigeria were also photographed for WHMM by anthropologist [Gustav Bolinder](/collections-information/lQ0fMyP8xr8hWWJiQkfl/transcribe-wellcome/research/people/collectors.md#bolinder-gustav).

#### Archive sources

Acquisition and collecting: Over 600 pages of documentation on collecting, from c.1927-32, 1938.

* [WA/HMM/CM/Col/58](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/mb2re2g4) collections dossier, 1927-38
* [WA/HMM/CO/Chr/C.14](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/wnjaecbf) correspondence, 1926
* [WA/HMM/CO/Chr/F.13](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ecwy4rqa) correspondence, 1929
* [WA/HMM/CO/Chr/J.110](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h9xab2nx) correspondence, 1932-47

Museum records related to display, cataloguing, and dispersal of material to other institutions.

* [WA/HMM/CM/Col/58](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/mb2re2g4) collections dossier, 1927-38
* [WA/HMM/CM/Lis/14](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hq8gsn94) beginning at [page image 209](https://wellcomecollection.org/works/hq8gsn94/items?canvas=209\&langCode=false), including staff selection of dispersals to Pitt Rivers Museum, 1942


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