Eminent biologist Sir Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) was born in Lancashire but moved to Australia to take up the chair in biology at the University of Melbourne in 1887. As a member of the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia in 1894, Spencer made the acquaintance of F. J. Gillen, an advocate of Aboriginal rights, with whom he later formed a working partnership. Spencer and Gillen returned to Alice Springs in 1896-1897, to carry out observations on the local Aboriginal tribe, the Arunta. These observations were published in 1899 in The Native Tribes of Central Australia (also reissued in this series), which represented the most comprehensive study of Aboriginal customs and habits. Gillen and Spencer continued to undertake fieldwork until 1903. Published in two volumes in 1912, Across Australia describes the topography of the region and the way of life of its Aboriginal inhabitants.
