Expedition: Lake Rukwa

This material is held atSedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge

  • Reference
    • GB 590 FCHS 4
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1938-1947
  • Name of Creator
  • Physical Description
    • 5 volumes and 3 files

Scope and Content

The series includes annotated notebooks of the expedition; papers and notes and a published paper.

Administrative / Biographical History

The mission of this expedition was to conduct geological survey and palaeontological work in the Lake Rukwa basin of the African Rift Valley, and to find evidence of an earlier southern extension of Lake Rudolf.

Members of the Expedition included Vivian Fuchs (Leader / Geologist); Donald MacInnes (Palaeontologist) and Dora MacInnes (Botanist).

As Sir Vivian noted himself "The Lake Rukwa Expedition was planned to extend my East African Rift Valley work to the south. Before moving to Lake Rukwa from Kenya I planned a brief visit to the area between Lakes Baringo and Rudolf "- V.E. Fuchs, journal.

Arrangement

The records had been originally re-boxed during the 1990s and all original order was lost. The series has therefore been artificially arranged into 2 sub-series to reflect the type of records retained for each expedition- those created on the expedition (notebooks) and those relating to specimens and/or created after the expedition (papers, specimen cards, maps and notes).

Other Finding Aids

Sub series and file level descriptions are available. Please ask staff for further information.