McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888-1957)

Field of activity
Anthropologist and Photographer; anthropologist; Photography; Anthropologist; Anthropologist and Ethnographer
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-639321

Biographies

McCONNEL, URSULA HOPE (1888-1957), anthropologist, was born on 27 October 1888 at Cressbrook, near Toogoolawah, Queensland, fifth daughter and eighth of ten children of James Henry McConnel, grazier and farmer, and his wife Mary Elizabeth, née Kent, both Queensland born. David Cannon McConnel was her grandfather. Raised at Cressbrook (the family property and Shorthorn stud), Ursula was educated at the Brisbane High School for Girls and later at New England Girls' School, Armidale, New South Wales, where she took prizes in singing and languages. From 1905 to 1907 she attended courses in history, politics, literature and music at the women's department, King's College, London. Although once engaged, she never married, and pursued a career with vigour and dedication.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography

As one of the first students of A. R. Radcliffe-Brown's Australian tenureship, Ursula McConnel conducted ethnographic fieldwork as a participant-observer in western Cape York Peninsula between 1927 and 1934. She worked chiefly among the Wik peoples, particularly the Wik Mungkan based at Aurukun Mission. As part of her anthropological study McConnel amassed a substantial material culture collection of over five hundred artefacts. Together with Donald Thomson's collection from the same area, it forms a unique record of Wik Mungkan material culture from that period. In 2006 a large collection of professional papers belonging to Ursula was discovered and donated to the South Australian Museum.

Ursula Hope McConnel was born on the family property, Cressbrook, at Toogolawah, Queensland, to James Henry McConnel and Mary Elizabeth, née Kent.  Her aunt, Mary Bundock, later Mrs Murray-Prior, was a significant early collector of Aboriginal artefacts from the Richmond River district of New South Wales and may have encouraged Ursula in developing a professional interest in the Aboriginal people of Queensland.

After school at The Brisbane High School for Girls (Somerville House), and the New England Girls Grammar School, Armidale (New South Wales), Ursula went to London. She took courses in history, politics, literature and music between 1905 and 1907 at the women's department, King's College. Ursula enrolled at the University of Queensland in 1913, graduating BA with first class honours in 1918. She was appointed honorary demonstrator in the Philosophy Department where her brother-in-law, Elton Mayo, was professor. In 1922 she returned to London and enrolled as a PhD student in cultural anthropology at University College, London.

In 1926 McConnel abandoned her thesis and returned to Australia to commence fieldwork among Aboriginal Australians in North Queensland with Professor Radcliffe-Brown of Sydney University. She stayed at the Presbyterian Mission at Aurukun as the guest of Reverend William and Geraldine (Gerry) Mackenzie, the friends and helpers of Frances Derham. McConnel, however, was publicly critical of the mission, and as a result she and other anthropologists were banned from it. In 1930 she received a grant from the Australian National Research Council and went to Cairns. From there, she and her friend Margaret Spence returned on horseback to Cape York, despite mission opposition. Although she published scholarly articles in Oceania and was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to study under Edward Sapir at Yale University, Connecticut, United States of Americia in 1931, she was excluded from academic employment (which she bitterly resented) and denied a PhD on the grounds of insufficient publications.

When research and fieldwork funding also dried up in the late 1930s, McConnel went into semi-retirement. She purchased a house at Eagle Heights, south of Brisbane in the late 1940s and continued to write up her field data on the Wik-Mungkana for publication, producing her book, Myths of the Munkan (1957), with help from her friend the poet Judith Wright, in the year of her death. The importance of McConnel's scholarly contribution was recognized after her death. With those of Donald Thomson, her publications form the foundations of present-day anthropological research on Western Cape York Peninsula. She had devoted much of her life to this endeavour, driven by a sense of duty and justice towards the Aboriginals with whom she had worked.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

McConnel had a full academic career which involved research in both London and Australia. Yet despite publishing regular scholarly articles and receiving a Rockefeller Fellowship for study at Yale, she was refused academic employment and denied a PhD in Australia. She did a lot of fieldwork on Indigenous Australians.

photographer and anthropologist, was born on the family property, Cressbrook, at Toogolawah, Queensland, on 27 October 1888, fifth of the ten children of James Henry McConnel and Mary Elizabeth, née Kent, of Jondaryn on the Darling Downs. Her aunt Mary Bundock, later Mrs Murray-Prior (daughter of Ellen Bundock, q.v.), was a significant early collector of Aboriginal artefacts from the Richmond River district of New South Wales and may have encouraged Ursula in developing a professional ...

Flourished

  • fl. 1904-ca. 1957

View the full record at Design and Art Australia Online

Ursula McConnel undertook research into the Aboriginal peoples of the Gulf of Carpentaria region of the Cape York Peninsula 1927-1928 and 1934.

View the full record at Encyclopedia of Australian Science

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Resources for Ursula Hope McConnel

Selected resources (17)

Australian Dictionary of Biography

  1. 'McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888 - 1957)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 15, pp 178-179.
    Anne O'Gorman Perusco
    [2000]
    Published: Melbourne University Press

Australian Women's Register

  1. Native arts and industries on the Archer, Kendall and Holroyd Rivers, Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland
    McConnel, Ursula H
    [1953]
    Published: The Hassell Press
  2. McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888 - 1957)Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Australian National University : McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888 - 1957)
    O'Gorman Perusco Anne
    [2006]
    Published: Australian National University
    Series: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150214b.htm
  3. Surprise Discovery of Early Anthropological Papers in AdelaideThe Australian Anthropological Society Newsletter Australian Anthropological Society : Surprise Discovery of Early Anthropological Papers in Adelaide
    Sutton, P
    [2006]
    Published: Australian Anthropological Society
    Series: http://www.aas.asn.au/Newsletter/2006/103%20AAS%20Newsletter%20September%202006.pdf
  4. The snake, the serpent and the rainbow : Ursula McConnel and Aboriginal AustraliansFirst in their field : women and Australian anthropology Marcus, Julie : The snake, the serpent and the rainbow : Ursula McConnel and Aboriginal Australians
    O'Gorman, Anne
    [1993]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
  5. Myths of the Munkan
    McConnel, Ursula H
    [1957]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
  6. 'Perhaps if there had been more women in the north, the story would have been different: Gender and Race in North Queensland 1840-1930.
    Henningham, Nikki
    [2000]
    Published: Univeristy of Melbourne, Department of History
  7. John Oxley Library, Manuscripts and Business Records Collection, State Library of Queensland: Ursula McConnel (c. 1938 - )
    Black and white photographic image of Ursula McConnel - copied and digitised from original image
    Image Number: 110557
  8. South Australian Museum Archives: Letters from Ursula McConnel to Fry (1950 - 1952)
    Seven letters containing an exchange of information regarding social organisation of Australian Aboriginal people mainly focusing on the concepts of matrilineal and patrilineal kinships.
    AA 105/7/1/1-7
  9. South Australian Museum Archives: Ursula McConnel Collection (c. 1930 - )
    A major collection of anthropological writings and photographs about the Wik people has been donated to the SA Museum. The photographs and writings are by the anthropologist Ursula McConnel who collected the material during the early 1930s.
    Not Available
  10. South Australian Museum Archives: Oceania vol. Xxl (1950 - 1952)
    A copy of 1950, Oceaina, vol. xxl, no. 2; sent to Fry and Tindale (see aa 338) from Ursula McConnel (see AA 191). This book contains several loose, hand written copies of McConnel's Diagrams of Marriage, and Marriage and Kinship Systems; plus notes and annotations written within the book itself.
    AA 105/7/2

Encyclopedia of Australian Science

  1. Enigma VariationsThe Weekend Australian 6-7 : Enigma Variations
    Rothwell, Nicolas
    [2009]
  2. McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888-1957), AnthropologistAustralian Dictionary of Biography John Ritchie 15 178-179 : McConnel, Ursula Hope (1888-1957), Anthropologist
    Perusco, Anne O'Gorman
    [2000]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
  3. First in Their Field: Women and Australian Anthropology
    Marcus, Julie, Lepervanche, Marie de, McBryde, Isabel, Prior, Mary Ellen Murray, White, Isobel; Morris, Miranda; O'Gorman, Anne; Marcus, Julie and Cheater, Christine
    [1993]
    Published: Melbourne University Press
  4. Brilliant Careers: Women Collectors and Illustrators in Queensland
    McKay, Judith
    [1997]
    Published: Queensland Museum
  5. Where are the Women in Australian Science?
    McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
    Series: http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html
  6. State Records of South Australia: Ursula McConnel - Records (1934 - 1953)
    Correspondence 1950-53 concerning McConnel's manuscript 'Native Arts and Industries on the Archer, Kendall and Holroyd Rivers, Cape York Peninsula, North Queensland'; list of specimen collection from the Gulf of Carpentaria 1951; list of photographs; 5 paintings of figured art; proofs, plates and typescript with author's corrections and annotations by N.B. Tindale of 'Native Arts and Industries' [A.D. 49].
    A.D. 49

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