Item 4 - The story of Tasmanian aborigines

William Bryden (1904-1992), museum director, geneticist, and educator, was born on 30 December 1904 at Martinborough, New Zealand, son of Scottish-born James Bryden, bootmaker, and his English-born wife Amanda Helen, née Syvret. William attended Kaiapoi and Rangiora High schools, and Canterbury College (later the University of Canterbury), Christchurch (BSc, 1926; MSc, 1927). He was mathematics and science master at Christchurch Technical College until 1931, when he was awarded an overseas research scholarship. At the University of Edinburgh he completed a PhD in genetics (1933) and earned a rugby blue. Bryden was appointed director of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 1953. Immediately embroiled in the controversy then raging over Truganini’s remains, he rejected calls to remove her skeleton from the museum on the grounds that her memory would be best served by conserving it for future researchers. He later published The Story of the Tasmanian Aboriginals (1960).
For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bryden-william-16124