William Downing Webster
| William Downing Webster | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Webster, William Downing.jpg | |||||||
| Born | 1868 | ||||||
| Died | 1913 | ||||||
| Residence | Home Court, Palace Road, Streatham Hill | ||||||
| Occupation |
collector business | ||||||
| |||||||
Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
nominated and forthwith elected
1905.05.09 The Treasurer reported the results of his circular to Fellows in arrears. It was resolved that the names of all Fellows over two years in arrears should be sent to the London Association for the Protection of Trade, with the exception of Miss Hussey, Revd. H.V. Mills and Mr W.D. Webster, who it was resolved should be struck off the list of Fellows.
Notes From Elsewhere
Collector and dealer in ethnographic objects based in London and Oxford, initially worked as stained glass designer in Lancaster
William Downing Webster (11 May 1868 – 14 January 1913) was a British ethnographic dealer and collector, best known for his collection gathered from material seized by British troops during the Benin Expedition of 1898.
Webster was born in 1868 in Greenwich to Robert and Sarah Webster. Although his father was in the potato trade, Webster was initially employed as a stained glass designer in Lancaster before becoming a dealer in ethnographic antiquities in the 1890s. In 1891 he married Agnes Harrison in Kendal. He published a series of catalogues detailing his collection during the next two decades, and staged a number of exhibitions of ethnographic material at Earl's Court. In 1899 he traveled throughout Britain purchasing material from British soldiers returning from the Benin Expedition, amassing a large quantity of material that was carefully recorded in his catalogues. In 1904 his marriage broke up and he separated from his wife and two daughters and lived with his housekeeper Eva Cutter in London sold the entirety of his collection in a five-day auction. He died from alcoholism in Effingham in 1913 and is reportedly buried at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Publications
External Publications
House Publications
Related Material Details
RAI Material
photo collection
Other Material
PRM field collector
