Photographs from Anthropological Field Trips to Remote Regions of Australia [Adolphus Peter (AP) Elkin] (Series 1042)

Due to the nature of the records, the Archives reserves the right to restrict, limit or refuse access to any item/s without prior notice, on the basis of personal privacy or out of respect for the rights and/or beliefs of First Nations people in accordance with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network (ATSILIRN) protocols.

The papers of AP Elkin include a large series of photographs and negatives taken by Elkin and various others primarily on field trips to remote regions of Australia, New Guinea and islands of the Pacific. The images include portraits of people, Aboriginal ceremonies and sites, camps, a variety of activities, Aboriginal art, weapons and tools, and images of Professor Elkin himself in the field.

Prints and enlargements were made from the negatives. There are cases where there is a print but no negative. Glass lantern slides were also made from the negatives and used for teaching purposes. These glass lantern slides are held by the Macleay Museum. Many of the prints have annotations which have been used to assist in the identification of the images. The numbering of the items varies due to the items being numbered for a variety of purposes at various times before they were described.

Basic information such as geographical location is noted at times on the enclosures for the negatives. The prints and enlargements sometimes have extra detail on the back.

This series comprises the various negatives and prints from Series 739 relating to Australia to enable control to be gained to allow research and description of the images to enable communities to view them and allocate appropriate access to them. Because of this the series is currently closed. 

Through describing and the identification of the images, images that were initially located in one geographical area, e.g. South Australia and have since been identified as belonging to another area, e.g. Kimberley, have been relocated to the correct geographical area to aid in community consultation and reflect the provenance of the images. Because of this, there will be items with different item numbers, e.g. within the Kimberly photos there will be items with the number 1042_0xxx from the South Australian negatives and prints rather than P130 prefix. There may also seem to be gaps in the numbering, but this will be due to images being physically located in one geographical area but described in another as they are actually from a different area to the one the image is physically placed.

The images do not have exact dates of when they were taken as they are unknown. The date range of the field trip has been used as start and end dates.

The provenance of the images is not always clear as Elkin was sent images by various people over the years.

The following are numbered:
- South Australian negatives: 1042_1-481
- South Australian prints: 1042_482-571
- Kimberley negatives and prints: P130/18 - all the prints and negatives were numbered and scanned before this Series was created - there is much duplication. The Kimberley prints and negatives were grouped in various packets and bundles within a folder. The third number in the numbering sequence is the folder number, the fourth number is the packet/bundle number and the fifth number is the item number.
- P130_18_2_1: these images have been numbered as Elkin numbered them at the back of the enlargement. There are descriptions of the images within Elkin's notebook which have been included in the description of the images. There are enlargements which have not been found which is why the numbering sequence may not run concurrently.

Elkin also had a photographic index (ref P130/41/583) which has been used to aid the description and identification of images from the Kimberley.
Within the Kimberley images are images taken by Ralph Piddington and HJ Coate. There are multiple images of the same people taken at different angles within the Piddington images. Only the portrait image has been described. For more information on the images that Piddington took see 'Karadjeri Initiation' by Ralph Piddington Oceania, Vol 3, No 1 (Sep 1932),pp 46-87.