Trobriand Islands DEP

(Left): Samuel Fellows with Paramount Chief Numakala and his son, 1897. (PNG National Archives).

(Right): The Fellows Monument at Mulosaida.

Rev. Samuel Benjamin Fellows Collection:

19th century missionary to the Trobriand Islands

His diaries, manuscripts, reports and accounts of his life

Compiled by Kim Akerman

Contents

Diaries

Introduction by Dr. Andrew Connelly
Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University
Reverend Samuel Fellows (1858-1933) founded the Wesleyan Methodist mission station at Oiabia in 1894. Even though pearl traders were already anchoring on the Kiriwina lagoon and beginning to take up residence ashore, Fellows was the first long-term European resident in the Trobriands to record his experiences there.
His diary covers five years on Kiriwina, 1894-1898 and 1899-1900, albeit with some gaps and missing pages. Most of this time Fellows was accompanied by his wife, Sallie, the second European woman to visit and first to live in the Trobriands. ... READ MORE
Part I: July 21, 1891 to October 14, 1893 Click here to read.
Part II: August 14, 1894 to August 19, 1898 Click here to read.
Part III: September 1, 1899 to October 7, 1900 Click here to read.

Manuscripts

Collection of primitive art

This collection was gathered by S. B. Fellows and his wife, Sarah, between the years 1891 to 1901. The bulk of the material, which is all from the Trobriand Islands, was given to Fellows and his wife as gifts in return for their unselfish devotion and love they gave their parishioners.
Most of the pieces therefore have not only artistic and aesthetic merit but are also links with the great names of natives during the contact period. People such as Pulitara, Enamakala and Moliasi, whom Fellows worked and lived with, and described vividly in his diaries and many notes. - (Ackerman).

Miscellany

Notes, obituaries, papers, reports made to the annual report for British New Guinea and more. Click here.