Frederick George Godfrey Rose photographs of Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory, family and friends

PXA 7797

fonds

1968-1991

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9681471

3 albums (548 photographic prints) - 24 x 33 cm or smaller

Frederick George Godfrey Rose was born on 22 March 1915 in Croydon, London, England. In 1933, he attended St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, on a scholarship, where he was introduced to left-wing political ideas. After developing a strong interest in anthropology, he travelled to Australia in 1937 to pursue a career in the discipline, also undertaking a course in meteorology. In November 1937, he became an assistant meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology in Darwin, and undertook research in anthropology alongside his employment. In 1938, he was posted to Groote Eylandt, where he carried out his most involved fieldwork until 1941. On 3 March 1939, he married Edith Hildegarde Ruth Linde, whose communist ideas influenced Rose's political views. In March 1942, following the Japanese bombing of Broome, the couple moved to Perth and joined the Communist Party of Australia. He continued working for the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne, and then returned to Groote Eylandt in 1948 as a temporary member of the American-Australian Arnhem Land Scientific Expedition led by Charles Mountford. Through the 1950s, Rose's Communist stance held him under surveillance and, in March 1956, he joined his wife and four children who had moved to Berlin in 1953. He worked in the anthropology department at Humboldt University, East Berlin until 1980. His repeated attempts to return to Australia to resume his fieldwork in Groote Eylandt were thwarted by the Federal government, however he published several books advocating for Aboriginal rights in 1960, 1965, 1968 and 1987. He died in Berlin on 14 January 1991.

Reference:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. "Frederick George Rose (1915-1991)". Accessed 12 August 2024. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rose-frederick-george-19126

By descent from Frederick George Godfrey Rose to his daughters, Dr. Ruth Struwe and the donor

BOX 1
Album of 178 photos "Visit of Frederick G. G. Rose to Australia, May - Sept. 1968; back via Singapore", includes many portraits of family/friends; travels to Sydney, Queensland and the Northern Territory including Wattie Creek and Darwin. All photos are captioned with individual names and locations.

Album of 189 photos "Visit of Frederick G. G. Rose to England and Australia June - Nov. 1973", includes many portraits of family/friends; travels to the Northern Territory and mentions of the Gwalwa Daraniki Association Incorporated. All photos are captioned with individual names and locations.

Album of 181 photos "Visit of F.G.G. Rose to Australia Dec.17, 1974 - May 20, 1975", includes many portraits of family/friends; travels to the Old Sydney Town theme park in Sombersby, New South Wales, and Australian Capital Territory. All photos are captioned with individual names and locations.

BOX 2
1 folder of condolence letters and cards to Edith Rose and family following the death of Frederick G. G. Rose, dated 21 January 1990 to 23 April 1991. Includes copies of three newspaper clippings about Frederick Rose's death: The Independent, 15 February 1991; The Guardian, 6 February 1991; The Guardian, 18 February 1991

1 folder containing two printed articles by Frederick Rose: 'Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings, Ethnological delusion - sociological phenomenon?' published in the Abhandlungen und Berichte des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde Dresden (Papers and Reports of the State Museum of Ethnology, Dresden), by Akademie Berlin 1975 ; Ethnographie, Anthropologie, 'The case of the smuggling of the Australian Aboriginal 'Crown Jewels' out of Australia', undated. Also contains several letters from the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England, informing Dr Rose of his inclusion in the Ninth Edition of The International Who's Who of Intellectuals, Spring 1991, and the Twenty-Second Edition of the Dictionary of International Biography, Spring 1992. Letters dated 1 February 1991 to 10 June 1991

1 bound book 'Classification of Kin, Age Structure and Marriage Amongst the Groote Eylandt Aborigines ; A Study in Method and a Theory of Australian Kinship’ by Frederick G. G. Rose, with personalised annotations including corrections and additional data, published by Akademie-Verlag Berlin, 1960

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are advised that this collection includes images of people who are deceased.

All albums stamped "Eigentum F. Rose ; 113 Berlin Schulze - Boysen - Straße (Aufgang)"