William Henry Blackmore - Philanthropy

Philanthropy

From the mid-1840s, archaeologists Ephraim George Squier (1821–1888) and Edwin Hamilton Davis (1811–1888) excavated artifacts from mounds discovered in the Mississippi and Ohio valley, to form the so-called Squier-Davis collection. They had written a manuscript discussing their findings but did not have the funds to publish it.

Having been unsuccessful in his efforts to sell the 1300-piece Mound City Group collection to the Smithsonian Institution or the New York Historical Society, Davis prepared a catalogue featuring his cumulative collections and placed them up for sale on the open market. The catalogue included not only Ohio antiquities, but those from his excavations in Peru, Central America, and Denmark as well. Davis preferred having the collection remain in the United States, but no American institution came forward to make a serious monetary offer. In 1864 Blackmore acquired the entire collection of native American archaeological artefacts excavated from the mounds in the Mississippi valley, including the Squier-Davis collection. He purchased this collection from Davis for US$10,000.

William founded the Blackmore Museum in Salisbury which opened in a lavish ceremony on 4 September 1867. Dr. Humphrey Purnell Blackmore (1822–1929) and William's brother in law Edward Thomas Stevens (1828–1878) were the museum's honorary curators. Since the museum collections included the Squier and Davis collections it appears to have become something of a place of pilgrimage for American archaeologists. The 1907 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica described the museum as "one of the finest collections of prehistoric antiquities in England." In 1899 the eminent U.S. ethnographer George Amos Dorsey (1868–1931) wrote; "The Blackmore Museum of Salisbury contains one of the best selected and arranged collections of man's prehistoric relics that I have ever seen."

William significantly sponsored the 1872 survey expedition of the Yellowstone region led by Ferdinand Hayden, also funding equipment for photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran. William and his wife travelled with the expedition. Hayden named a newly discovered mineral Blackmorite in thanks for William's support.

Blackmore commissioned photographers like Jackson to photograph Native Americans. Some accompanied the survey expeditions, some he contacted and acquired their existing prints and some made portraits of natives visiting Washington. The work of some twenty-eight photographers were to be found in Blackmore's photographic collection. These included Antonio Zeno Shindler (d.1899), Alexander Gardner (1821–1882), Orloff R. Westman, and Dr. William Abraham Bell. The collections also included commercially available carte de vistes and stereoscopic views.

William took prints for display at the museum but asked that the negatives be left for students to study. The original set of photographs is referred to as the Blackmore Collection. Some photographers continued to make portraits after Blackmore left and those expanded were named for the photographer.

His brother, Dr. Humphrey Purnell Blackmore, a physician, surgeon and archaeologist was one of the founders of the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum which was primarily dedicated to local artifacts. In 1902 the two museums were amalgamated, taking the latter name. Following Humphrey Blackmore's death, a significant number of Blackmore Museum artifacts were distributed to other museums including the Smithsonian Institution, the Birmingham Museum, and the British Museum. In 1932 Barbara Aitken, a prominent anthropologist who had worked with the innovative educator and passionate amateur archaeologist Edgar Lee Hewett (1865–1946), secured a substantial set of Blackmore's papers relating to his activities in New Mexico for the Historical Society of New Mexico. This material also included some 112 photographs in carte de visite, stereoscopic, Cabinet and other formats. Blackmore's museum, whose name had become incorporated with that of the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum after his death – and amalgamated in 1902 - finally disappeared in 1968. The remnants of his museum moved from its purpose built setting adjoining the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum in St. Ann Street to The King's House in the Cathedral Close in 1981 and the building was subsequently converted into residential apartments.