Politics of fossils and the Royal Society: two letters from Robert Broom to Alexander du Toit (1941–1942)

Abstract

Robert Broom, FRS (1866–1951) was the most internationally prominent South African palaeontologist in the early twentieth century. He wrote to the most famous South African geologist of that time, Alexander Logie du Toit (1878–1948), in 1941, after du Toit had retired to live in Cape Town. Broom speculated to du Toit about his chances of being nominated as Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and gave an account of his own experiences before being made an FRS in 1920, citing the opposition of Arthur Smith Woodward. He provided the reasons for his controversial sale of Karoo vertebrate fossils to the American Museum of Natural History in 1913 (rather than to the South African or British museums, as had been expected). In his second letter of 1942, Broom asked du Toit about the exact type locality of the important mammal-like reptile (therapsid) Tritylodon. He encouraged du Toit to seek the support of Arthur Rogers, FRS, in his fellowship bid for the Royal Society.

Keywords:

• Karoo fossils
• Tritylodon
• Smith Woodward
• FRS
• Draper
• Rogers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the Clive Kirkwood of the Jagger Library, University of Cape Town, for his help in accessing the du Toit Archives, and for permission to publish this correspondence.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).