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- William Fagg
- Also known as
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William Fagg
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primary name: Fagg, William Buller
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other name: William Buller Fagg Charitable Trust
- Details
- individual; curator; academic/intellectual; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1914-1992
- Biography
- Curator in the Department of Ethnography, 1938-74 (Keeper in 1969-74). Oversaw the move in 1972 to Burlington Gardens when the department became the Museum of Mankind. Always known as 'Bill'. Graduated from Cambridge in 1936 where he studied Classics, Archaeology and Anthropology. Elder brother of the archaeologist Bernard Fagg (q.v.). Awarded a CMG in 1967, the year in which he suffered a stroke.
Numerous photographs taken by him are in the British Museum collection. He made five field trips to Africa (mainly Nigeria), producing collections that were accessioned in :
1951 (Af1951,12.1 to 312) in Nigeria, Dahomey and Belgian Congo, collected between December 1949 and February 1950 ( 'When I returned from my first visit to West Africa and the Belgian Congo in 1950 – a mere reconnaissance of many different areas, lasting four months – I found that I knew far less than I thought I knew when I left England.' Six weeks were spent in British and French Yorubaland, to which he returned in 1958-9. (Fagg & Pemberton, 'Yoruba sculpture of West Africa', 1982, p.7). For much of this visit, he was accompanied by Kenneth Murray (qv), and their purchases were divided between the Nigerian national museum in Lagos (which Murray founded) and the British Museum.
1953 (Af1953.17.1 to 27) adire from Abeokuta and Ila, collected in 1953
1959 (Af1959,19.1 to 267) in Yorubaland, collected between October 1958 and April 1959 while he was conducing field work in 1958-9 in south-west Yoruba areas: his unpublished field notes survive.
1969 (Af1969,36.1 to 17) in Algeria, among the Kabyle
1971 (Af1971,39.1 to 29) also in Algeria among the Kabyle
After his death, his collection was bequeathed to the British Museum and registered in 1993 (Af1993.02.1 to 462) with further items following in 1999 (see Af1999,01.1 to 69). See Eth.Doc.121.
Fagg was responsible for building up the BM's African collection, and redirecting interest, which under H J Braunholtz had been primarily archaeological and ethnographic, into the field of African art, about which he was one of the first writers in England. He was regarded as an authority on Yoruba art.
Fagg was a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and was made Vice President (1963-1973).
All posthumous donations by the William Buller Fagg Charitable Trust are entered under his name.
- Bibliography
- (obituaries)
The Guardian, July 16, 1992.
The Independent, July 14, 1992, p. 25
The Times, July 14, 1992, p. 17
J. Picton, ‘A tribute to William Fagg’, African Arts, 27/3 (1994), 26–9
J.Tomes, 'J. Fagg, William [Bill] Buller (1914–1992), ethnologist and art historian', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online).
His publications include: "The Sculpture of Africa" (1958), "Nigerian Images" (1963), "Africa and the Renaissance: Art In Ivory" (1988).
