Description
Robert Codrington (1830–1922) trained to be a priest at Oxford University. He was appointed as headmaster of the Melanesian Mission training school on Norfolk Island in 1867. He spent eight
years as the head of the Mission travelling through the Melanesian region. Throughout his time in the region he attempted to gain an ethnographic understanding of the people whom he was serving.
To this end he studied local languages and translated scriptures into Mota, the lingua franca of the Mission. However, for Codrington, material artefacts were fundamental to his understanding of
Melanesian life. He took a lively interest in material culture as a collector and donated objects to a number of museums. His specialist knowledge made him a valued informant for scholars of
Melanesia who regularly consulted him. He is regarded today as one of the founding scholars of Pacific anthropology.
