Louis Ledoux: Papua New Guinea Collection
By Willow Auction House
Nov 16, 2021
2 Frassetto Way Lincoln Park, NJ 07035, United States

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.

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LOT 95:

Documents on Ledoux's Work and Potential Publicity

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Documents on Ledoux's Work and Potential Publicity

Documents regarding Louis Pierre Ledoux's fieldwork in New Guinea and its potential publicity.

There is a letter from November 10th 1936 from Giles Healey, explaining that he has not followed up on publicity he promised due to a review written by Masters in the "Public Relation Counsel Field" and includes an article "A Critic of our Mission" which mentions Ledoux expedition. The article says" After a cursory glance around him, the American Traveler cast severe aspersions in a most reckless way on a body of men of whom he knows nothing except that they have voluntarily renounced the comforts of civilization to lead the heathen to the Cross, forgetting, as a Sacred Heart Father reminded him, in a letter to the Brisbane press, that he was enabled to visit New Guinea precisely because the missionaries had proceeded him there and had helped to introduce the white man's law."

There is also a follow up letter from December 1st 1936 including a long promised "Public Relations Policy" as outlined by Mr. Harrison Reeve.

These Policies include a page of each of these topics: Headhunter Friendly, Missionaries, Breeding Methods, Food, Weather, In Law Relationship, Head Hunting, Economic Methods, Copyright on Songs.

There is also a copy of an article in "Science News Letter" from September 21, 1940 by Professor Albert Einstein entitled "Personal God Concept Causes Science-Religion Conflict.

Date: 1930's
Material: Paperwork

Provenance: Louis Pierre Ledoux Collection



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