Macaws, Elephants and Mahouts: Frederic Wood Jones, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Human Biology Project.

In 1926 the anatomist Frederic Wood Jones toured the United States at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1924 the Foundation had set up a Division of Studies under the leadership of Edwin Embree with the brief to fund programmes under the title of ‘Human Biology’. Grafton Elliot Smith's Rockefeller-funded Institute of Anatomy based at University College London wished to be designated at the centre of the programme and was well placed to provide such leadership. In 1927 the Institute was informed that it had been unsuccessful and the project would be centred in Hawaii under the directorship of the Yale geologist Herbert E. Gregory. This article explores the role of Wood Jones' 1926 trip and the importance of anthropological disputes in that important decision. It also examines the role of Australian anatomy in the development of human biology in the inter-war years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]