Abstract
Miss CZAPLICKA'S sudden death on May 20 cuts short a brilliant career. Having studied geography at Libau and Warsaw, she came with a research scholarship to this country in 1910, and soon after joined Somerville College, Oxford. She then turned her attention to anthropology, and, after taking the diploma in that subject, conceived the bold project of an expedition to the almost unknown part of the Siberian tundra, lying between the Yenisei and Lena valleys—a project that was carried out with brilliant success in the years 1914–15. It was in keeping with her spirit of thoroughness, however, that by way of prepara tion she should first review the existing litera ture, mostly Russian, relating to this region, thus producing “Aboriginal Siberia” (Clarendon Press, 1914), a book not only full of out-of-the-way in formation, but likewise showing interpretative power of a high order. Her return from an ad venturous journey involving great privations was marked by the appearance in 1916 of a popular work, “My Siberian Year”; but the full report by herself and her colleague, Mr. H. Hall, of the University of Pennsylvania, has not yet been published. At Oxford Miss Czaplicka acted as lec turer in ethnology until the end of the war, when she passed on to the University of Bristol to serve in a like capacity under Prof. Fawcett. In the meantime she found time to compose a valuable monograph on “The Turks of Central Asia,” as well as to contribute many articles on the Siberian tribes to Hastings's “Dictionary of Religion and Ethics”—articles which might well be reprinted together in book-form. This brief account must suffice of the work of one whose intellectual energy- was on a par with her personal charm and lofty spirit of self-devotion. Poland, so prolific of genius, can count her among its best. In Oxford, London, and Bristol alike she was the centre of a circle of admiring friends, whose lasting regret it now is that they did not somehow prevent the too courageous spirit from fatally overtaxing the deli cate frame.
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M., R. [Obituaries]. Nature 107, 466 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/107466a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/107466a0