HMJ Underhill Archive

This project began in September 2001 with the re-discovery of an old archive in the Institute of Archaeology (Oxford University). The archive consists of a collection of hand-painted glass (lantern) slides that depicted the "Megalithic Monuments of Great Britain," dating to 1897-5 and attributed to H.M.J. Underhill. The slides showed the stone circles at Stonehenge, Avebury, Stanton Drew and the Rollright Stones. Miscellaneous slides depicted other prehistoric monuments: Menhir at Dartmoor and the Sarsen Stones and Wayland's Smithy on the Oxfordshire Ridgeway. Since September 2001, more lantern slides in the Institute's collections have been attributed to Underhill on different subjects: Romano-British city remains (Bath, Colchester, Silchester and Wroxeter) and the vernacular architecture of windmills. The researchers, Megan Price and Deborah Harlan, used primary sources in the Bodleian Library Modern Manuscripts Collection and the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies to uncover much biographical information on Henry Michael John Underhill. We have also located further archives in the United Kingdom that hold Underhill material. The Underhill archive consists of 78 hand-painted glass slides and 17 photographic glass lantern slides. Each slide measures 3.25 inches square.