Papers of William Charles Osman Hill

Scope and Content

49 boxes of archival records including paper catalogues and research material, X rays, transparencies and cine film. This collection has been arranged into four broad groups representing the different areas of Hill's life and work. The four series are 1) personal papers; 2) Ethnological research on the Veddah people of Sri Lanka; 3) Comparative anatomy research papers; and 4) photographs and film stock.

Administrative / Biographical History

Anatomist and primatologist William Charles Osman Hill (1901-1975) began collecting primate specimens in 1930. Some of his collection originates from his private menagerie of exotic and native species, mainly accumulated in Sri Lanka. Other specimens were collected during his work for at the Zoological Society of London and the Yerkes Primate Research Centre in Atlanta Georgia, USA. In his retirement Osman Hill became a Trustee of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and bequeathed his collection of comparative anatomy to the Hunterian Museum.

Access Information

Open

Other Finding Aids

For a more detailed description of this collection, please see the RCS England Archives online catalogue.

Conditions Governing Use

Open

Geographical Names