John Cawte Beaglehole
Encyclopedia
John Cawte Beaglehole, OM, CMG
(13 June 1901 – 10 October 1971) was a New Zealand
historian
whose greatest scholastic achievement was the editing of James Cook
’s three journals of exploration, together with the writing of an acclaimed biography of Cook, published posthumously. He had a life-long association with Victoria University College which became Victoria University of Wellington and after his death they named the archival collections after him.
before being enrolled at Victoria University College, Wellington
of the University of New Zealand
, which later became an independent university, and where he subsequently spent most of his academic career. After his graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the London School of Economics
, and left for England in 1926.
After three years of post-graduate study Beaglehole obtained his PhD with a thesis on British colonial history. At this time he was much influenced by left-wing teachers, especially R. H. Tawney
and Harold Laski
, and on returning to New Zealand he found it difficult to obtain an academic post owing to his radical views. For a time he had various jobs including a spell as a Workers Educational Association lecturer, and had time to develop other enthusiasms including civil rights issues, writing poetry, and music, an interest inherited from his mother. His academic career finally took off in 1934 after the publication of his first major book, ‘‘The Exploration of the Pacific’’, after which he developed his specialist interest in James Cook. He became lecturer, later professor, at the Victoria University College.
He married Elsie Mary Holmes in 1930, and they had three sons.
to Tahiti
, to Tonga
and to the New Hebrides
. The four volumes of the journals that emerged between 1955 and 1967 were subsidized by the New Zealand government which also set up a special research post for their author. The sheer size of these tomes, each of them approaching 1,000 pages, may seem disconcerting at first sight, but they are enlivened by Beaglehole’s stylish and often witty introductions, intended to set the journals in their contexts. As well as Cook’s own journals Beaglehole also printed, either entire or in lengthy extracts, the journals of several of Cook’s colleagues on the voyages. The introductions themselves, together with copious footnotes, reveal the breadth of his erudition. They cover many topics, ranging from the structure of Polynesian society to oceanography, navigation, cartography, and much else.
Cook’s journals themselves had never before been comprehensively and accurately presented to the public, and to do so required enormous research since copies and fragments of the journals and related material were scattered in various archives in London, Australia and New Zealand. For his edition, Beaglehole sought out the various surviving holographs in Cook’s own hand in preference to copies by his clerks on board ship, and others. For the first voyage, the voyage of the Endeavour
, he used mainly the manuscript journal held in the National Library of Australia
at Canberra. This only came to light in 1923, when the heirs of a Teesside ironmaster, Henry Bolckow, put it up for sale. Bolckow had purchased this manuscript at an earlier auction, in 1868, but had not made his ownership widely known, and consequently it was assumed for many years that no such holograph existed. For the second voyage Beaglehole used two other partial journals in Cook’s hand, both of which had the same early history as the Endeavour journal. All three had probably once been owned by Cook’s widow, and sold by a relation of hers at the 1868 auction. The difference was that the two partial journals from the second voyage were then purchased by the British Museum
and not by Bolckow, and hence had long been available for public consultation. And for the third voyage Beaglehole’s main source was a journal written, and much revised, by Cook up to early January 1779, a month before he died. What happened to the final month’s entries, which must certainly have been made, is uncertain. This, too, is today in the British Library
, the successor to the British Museum as a manuscript repository.
All students of Cook owe an enormous debt to Beaglehole for his all-encompassing editorship. So much so, in fact, that today it is difficult to view the subject of Cook except through Beaglehole’s perspective. Some recent biographies of Cook have tended to be little else than abbreviated versions of Beaglehole. Nevertheless, it is also clear that Beaglehole’s work is, by and large, a continuation of the long tradition of Cook idealization, a tradition from which post-Beaglehole scholarship has started to diverge. For Beaglehole, Cook was a heroic figure who could do practically no wrong, and he is scathing about those contemporaries of Cook who ever ventured to criticise his hero, such as Alexander Dalrymple
, the geographer, and Johann Reinhold Forster
, who accompanied Cook on the second voyage. Recent research has to some extent rehabilitated both Dalrymple and Forster.
. Just before he died Beaglehole was in process of revising his detailed and authoritative biography of Cook, which was subsequently prepared for publication by his son, Tim
(currently also Chancellor and Emeritus Professor at Victoria
).
, named it's archival collections after him, in the reading room of which is displayed his portrait, by W.A. Sutton. The J.C. Beaglehole Room, as it is known, was moved into a completely new space in 2011.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
(13 June 1901 – 10 October 1971) was a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
whose greatest scholastic achievement was the editing of James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...
’s three journals of exploration, together with the writing of an acclaimed biography of Cook, published posthumously. He had a life-long association with Victoria University College which became Victoria University of Wellington and after his death they named the archival collections after him.
Early life and career
Beaglehole was born and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, the second of the four sons of David Ernest Beaglehole, a clerk, and his wife, Jane Butler. He was educated at Mount Cook School and Wellington CollegeWellington College (New Zealand)
Wellington College is a state secondary school for boys in Mount Victoria in Wellington, New Zealand.-History:Wellington College opened in 1867 as Wellington Grammar School in Woodward Street, though Sir George Grey gave the school a deed of endowment in 1853. In 1874 it opened at its present...
before being enrolled at Victoria University College, Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
of the University of New Zealand
University of New Zealand
The University of New Zealand was the New Zealand university from 1870 to 1961. It was the sole New Zealand university, having a federal structure embracing several constituent colleges at various locations around New Zealand...
, which later became an independent university, and where he subsequently spent most of his academic career. After his graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, and left for England in 1926.
After three years of post-graduate study Beaglehole obtained his PhD with a thesis on British colonial history. At this time he was much influenced by left-wing teachers, especially R. H. Tawney
R. H. Tawney
Richard Henry Tawney was an English economic historian, social critic, Christian socialist, and an important proponent of adult education....
and Harold Laski
Harold Laski
Harold Joseph Laski was a British Marxist, political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946, and was a professor at the LSE from 1926 to 1950....
, and on returning to New Zealand he found it difficult to obtain an academic post owing to his radical views. For a time he had various jobs including a spell as a Workers Educational Association lecturer, and had time to develop other enthusiasms including civil rights issues, writing poetry, and music, an interest inherited from his mother. His academic career finally took off in 1934 after the publication of his first major book, ‘‘The Exploration of the Pacific’’, after which he developed his specialist interest in James Cook. He became lecturer, later professor, at the Victoria University College.
He married Elsie Mary Holmes in 1930, and they had three sons.
Editing Cook’s journals
Beaglehole became known internationally for his work on Cook’s journals which brought out his great gifts as historian and editor. It was not all desk work among the archives – he also travelled widely in Cook’s wake, from WhitbyWhitby
Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...
to Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, to Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
and to the New Hebrides
New Hebrides
New Hebrides was the colonial name for an island group in the South Pacific that now forms the nation of Vanuatu. The New Hebrides were colonized by both the British and French in the 18th century shortly after Captain James Cook visited the islands...
. The four volumes of the journals that emerged between 1955 and 1967 were subsidized by the New Zealand government which also set up a special research post for their author. The sheer size of these tomes, each of them approaching 1,000 pages, may seem disconcerting at first sight, but they are enlivened by Beaglehole’s stylish and often witty introductions, intended to set the journals in their contexts. As well as Cook’s own journals Beaglehole also printed, either entire or in lengthy extracts, the journals of several of Cook’s colleagues on the voyages. The introductions themselves, together with copious footnotes, reveal the breadth of his erudition. They cover many topics, ranging from the structure of Polynesian society to oceanography, navigation, cartography, and much else.
Cook’s journals themselves had never before been comprehensively and accurately presented to the public, and to do so required enormous research since copies and fragments of the journals and related material were scattered in various archives in London, Australia and New Zealand. For his edition, Beaglehole sought out the various surviving holographs in Cook’s own hand in preference to copies by his clerks on board ship, and others. For the first voyage, the voyage of the Endeavour
HM Bark Endeavour
HMS Endeavour, also known as HM Bark Endeavour, was a British Royal Navy research vessel commanded by Lieutenant James Cook on his first voyage of discovery, to Australia and New Zealand from 1769 to 1771....
, he used mainly the manuscript journal held in the National Library of Australia
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia is the largest reference library of Australia, responsible under the terms of the National Library Act for "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the...
at Canberra. This only came to light in 1923, when the heirs of a Teesside ironmaster, Henry Bolckow, put it up for sale. Bolckow had purchased this manuscript at an earlier auction, in 1868, but had not made his ownership widely known, and consequently it was assumed for many years that no such holograph existed. For the second voyage Beaglehole used two other partial journals in Cook’s hand, both of which had the same early history as the Endeavour journal. All three had probably once been owned by Cook’s widow, and sold by a relation of hers at the 1868 auction. The difference was that the two partial journals from the second voyage were then purchased by the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and not by Bolckow, and hence had long been available for public consultation. And for the third voyage Beaglehole’s main source was a journal written, and much revised, by Cook up to early January 1779, a month before he died. What happened to the final month’s entries, which must certainly have been made, is uncertain. This, too, is today in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, the successor to the British Museum as a manuscript repository.
All students of Cook owe an enormous debt to Beaglehole for his all-encompassing editorship. So much so, in fact, that today it is difficult to view the subject of Cook except through Beaglehole’s perspective. Some recent biographies of Cook have tended to be little else than abbreviated versions of Beaglehole. Nevertheless, it is also clear that Beaglehole’s work is, by and large, a continuation of the long tradition of Cook idealization, a tradition from which post-Beaglehole scholarship has started to diverge. For Beaglehole, Cook was a heroic figure who could do practically no wrong, and he is scathing about those contemporaries of Cook who ever ventured to criticise his hero, such as Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple was a Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the British Admiralty. He was the main proponent of the theory that there existed a vast undiscovered continent in the South Pacific, Terra Australis Incognita...
, the geographer, and Johann Reinhold Forster
Johann Reinhold Forster
Johann Reinhold Forster was a German Lutheran pastor and naturalist of partial Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America...
, who accompanied Cook on the second voyage. Recent research has to some extent rehabilitated both Dalrymple and Forster.
Final years
During his last decade Beaglehole was showered with honorary degrees from universities at home and abroad and other distinctions. Perhaps the most prestigious was the award, in 1970, of the British Order of Merit. He was only the second New Zealander ever to receive this award, the first being the nuclear physicist, Ernest RutherfordErnest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...
. Just before he died Beaglehole was in process of revising his detailed and authoritative biography of Cook, which was subsequently prepared for publication by his son, Tim
Tim Beaglehole
Timothy Holmes Beaglehole is a New Zealand academic and former Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington.Born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, he is the son of the renowned historian John Beaglehole....
(currently also Chancellor and Emeritus Professor at Victoria
Victoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
).
Archival Collections at Victoria
Beaglehole’s alma mater, the Victoria University of WellingtonVictoria University of Wellington
Victoria University of Wellington was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a former constituent college of the University of New Zealand. It is particularly well known for its programmes in law, the humanities, and some scientific disciplines, but offers a broad range of other courses...
, named it's archival collections after him, in the reading room of which is displayed his portrait, by W.A. Sutton. The J.C. Beaglehole Room, as it is known, was moved into a completely new space in 2011.
Works by Beaglehole
- The Exploration of the Pacific, London, A. & C. Black, 1966.
- ed., The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768-1771, vol 1 & vol 2., Sydney, 1962.
- ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Endeavour,1768-1771, Cambridge, 1955, reprinted 1968.
- ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure, 1772-1775, Cambridge, 1961, reprinted 1969.
- ed., The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, 1776-1780, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1967.
- The Life of Captain James Cook, Stanford, California, 1974.
- The Death of Captain Cook. Wellington, NZ, Alexander Turnbull Library, 1979.
External links
- John Cawte Beaglehole at the NZ Electronic Text Centre, 12 August 1926 - 3 November 1927
- Beaglehole, Tim. 'Beaglehole, John Cawte 1901 - 1971'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (last update 16 December 2003)