The curators of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Parks Road, report a break-in during the small hours of Wednesday morning. Inspector Slack of Oxford City Police told the Mail that the miscreants made off with a number of valuable and historically important items from the late General’s fascinating collection, including one of the Museum’s famous shrunken heads.
Entry appears to have been via the main University Museum of Natural History entrance, although nothing from that Museum’s displays was stolen. The night-watchman, Mr Charles Grandage, was assaulted during the break-in and is currently recovering at home at the expense of the Museum curators.
The Pitt Rivers Museum was founded in 1884 when Lt.-General Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in the development of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology, gave his collection to the University. His two conditions were that a museum was built to house it and that someone should be appointed to lecture in anthropology. The objects in the Museum, numbering almost 40,000, are displayed 'typologically' – that is, grouped by form or purpose rather than by geographical or cultural origin. This unusual layout developed from the General's theories concerning the evolution of ideas, from the simple to the complex as the races of humanity display less or more cultural advancement.
The Museum remains one of Oxford’s lesser-known cultural jewels, and it is to be hoped that the Police are swift and accurate in their apprehension of the ruffians responsible.