Haddon, A. C. (1855–1940)

Bill Cooke

Alfred Cort Haddon can take credit as the man most responsible for establishing and legitimating anthropology as an academic discipline in Britain. There were anthropologists before Haddon, but no one did as much as he did for the discipline in its early years. In Haddon's words, anthropology was the “Cinderella science.” Haddon was born on May 24, 1855, and was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. From 1880 until 1901, he was Professor of Botany at the Dublin College of Science. In 1900, he moved back to England, where he lectured in ethnology at Cambridge and, after 1904, at London University as well. Haddon served as President of Royal Anthropological Institute and President of Ethnological Section of the British Association between 1902 and 1905. Haddon's prominence as an anthropologist came as a result of the influential expeditions to the Torres Straits islands. The first tour, in 1888, was originally undertaken to ...

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