Smith, Stephenson Percy (1840-1922)
Stephenson Percy Smith was born in England in 1840 and lived in New Zealand from the age of nine, where he died in 1922. A major figure in the history of Maori and Polynesian studies, he was the main founder, in 1892, of the Polynesian Society and the Journal of the Polynesian Society. He developed a particular interest in the problems of Polynesian origins and migration and undertook trips to the Pacific, resulting in the publication of Hawaiki in 1898. He is the author of an extensive bibliography, which also includes the translation of 19th-century Maori manuscripts, entitled The Lore of the Whare-wanananga (1913-1915).
Keywords: Amateur ethnographer | Polynesia | Maori
Secondary sources
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“Making History: John White and S. Percy Smith at Work”
Kendrick Smithyman, 1979
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“Polynesian Origins and Destinations: Reading the Pacific with S. Percy Smith”
Graeme Whimp, 2014
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“Smith, Stephenson Percy”
Giselle M. Byrnes, 1993
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“Smith, Stephenson Percy”
Austin Graham Bagnall & A. H. McLintock (ed.), 1966
Primary sources
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Hawaiki, the Original Home of the Maori, with a Sketch of Polynesian History
Stephenson Percy Smith, 1904
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History and Traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast North Island of New Zealand Prior to 1840
Stephenson Percy Smith, 1910
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Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century
Stephenson Percy Smith, 1910
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The Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 1-31
Polynesian Society, 1892-1922
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“S. Percy Smith, Born 1840; Died 1922”
Sydney H. Ray, 1922
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“The Late Stephenson Percy Smith, president and founder of the Polynesian Society and editor of its journal”
Edward Tregear, 1922
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