Trove is a repository of digitised data managed by the National Library of Australia.
Recently when I was researching Trove’s digitised newspapers, I came across a newly-added photograph of my great aunt Nancy de Crespigny.
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| Miss N. de Crespigny, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG 1218/34/435 |
Nancy Champion de Crespigny (1910-2003), the second child of Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny and his wife Beatrix née Hughes, was the sister of my grandfather Geoff. She was a close lifelong friend of my grandmother Kathleen, Geoff’s wife.
Nancy went to Woodlands School in Adelaide and then attended the University of Melbourne, where she graduated in 1933 with a history degree. She studied archeology at the University of London and Newnham College of Cambridge University.
The photograph comes from the State Library of Australia. It was taken 8 March 1936 by Charles Pearcy Mountford (1890-1976) at Salt Creek, also known as also known as Winnininnie Creek, about 330 kilometres north of Adelaide.
The photo of Nancy is in the Mountford-Sheard Collection. In the same collection I found two shots of Nancy’s future husband Hallam Movius (1907-1987) taken on the same day.
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| Hallam Movius, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG 1218/34/433B |
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| Hallam Movius, Salt Creek Image from State Library of South Australia PRG PRG 1218/34/433A |
The Adelaide Advertiser of 11 March 1936 mentions Nancy and Hal’s excursion. With them was the Adelaide anthropologist Charles Pearcy Mountford (1890-1907) .
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| PERSONAL (1936, March 11). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954), p. 18. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35415220 |
A few months later, in June, Hal sailed from Australia. Nancy followed in July. In September the pair married in London.
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| Life on the Ocean Wave (1936, June 18). Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 – 1939), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article152065161 |
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| Adelaide Archaeologist (1936, August 1). The Australian Women’s Weekly (1933 – 1982), p. 25. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48212356 |
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| DAUGHTER OF ADELAIDE DOCTOR MARRIED (1936, September 28). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954), p. 13. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48182227 |
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| Lighter Side of London Life Adelaide Girl Weds Young Archaeologist (1936, October 27). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article132025722 |
Related posts
- The memoir of my grandmother mentions Nancy several times although only in passing: Kathleen Cudmore: a Memoir
- My great-aunt Nancy owned a small camphorwood box with a silver plaque engraved with a shield and a motto. My father did some research into the coat of arms on that box: A search for the arms of the Dana family
Further reading
- Obituary for Nancy Movius in The Boston Globe of 12 December 2003
- Hallam L. Movius from Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
- Philip Jones, ‘Mountford, Charles Pearcy (1890–1976)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mountford-charles-pearcy-11188/text19941, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 2 May 2017.
- SA Memory: Charles P. Mountford, photographer and ethnographer
- Trove Help ›› Using Trove ›› Getting to know us ›› Trove is…
Anne's Family History 
Hi Anne
Great biographical window into one of our lesser known archaeologists. I’ve just come across correspondence between her father and AP Elkin, the Professor of Anthropology at Sydney University, in Elkin’s papers in 1936, looking to line Nancy some up with some archaeological opportunities.
Its interesting in its own right, but also is a bit of a corrective on the ‘romance among the ruins’ angle of the reportage.
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