Editing John Beaglehole

{{short description|New Zealand historian}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=March 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = John Beaglehole
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OM|CMG|size=100%}}
| image = John Cawte Beaglehole (1950).jpg
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| caption = Beaglehole in 1950
| birth_name = John Cawte Beaglehole
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|06|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Wellington]], New Zealand
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1971|10|10|1901|06|13|df=y}}
| death_place = Wellington, New Zealand
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| alma_mater = {{Unbulleted list|[[Victoria University of Wellington]]|[[London School of Economics]]}}
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| spouse = {{marriage|Elsie Mary Holmes|17 February 1930}}
| children = 3, including [[Tim Beaglehole|Tim]]
| discipline = [[History]]
}}
'''John Cawte Beaglehole''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|OM|CMG|size=85%}} (13 June 1901 – 10 October 1971) was a New Zealand historian whose greatest scholastic achievement was the editing of [[James Cook]]'s three journals of exploration, together with the writing of an acclaimed biography of Cook, published posthumously. He had a lifelong association with [[Victoria University College]], which became Victoria University of Wellington, and after his death it named the archival collections after him.

==Early life and career==
John Cawte Beaglehole was born 13 June 1901, in [[Wellington]], New Zealand, the second son of David Ernest Beaglehole, a clerk, and his wife Jane ([[Birth name#Maiden and married names|née]] Butler).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beaglehole |first=Tim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bj_upLQ80LwC |title=A Life of J. C. Beaglehole: New Zealand Scholar |publisher=Victoria University Press |year=2006 |isbn=9780864735355 |pages=8–9 |access-date=14 February 2025}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite ODNB|last=McCormick|first=E. H.|year=2004|title=Beaglehole, John Cawte|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30800}}</ref> John had one elder brother (Geoffrey) and two younger brothers (Keith and Ernest). [[Ernest Beaglehole]] became a psychologist and ethnologist. John was educated at Mount Cook School and [[Wellington College (New Zealand)|Wellington College]] before being enrolled at [[Victoria University of Wellington|Victoria University College, Wellington]] of the [[University of New Zealand]], which later became an independent university, and where he subsequently spent most of his academic career. After his graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the [[London School of Economics]], and left for England in 1926.

After three years of post-graduate study Beaglehole obtained his PhD with a thesis on British colonial history. At this time he was much influenced by left-wing teachers, especially [[R. H. Tawney]] and [[Harold Laski]], and on returning to New Zealand he found it difficult to obtain an academic post owing to his radical views. For a time he had various jobs including a spell as a [[Workers' Educational Association]] lecturer, and had time to develop other enthusiasms including civil rights issues, writing poetry, and music, an interest inherited from his mother. In 1932 he took a temporary position as a lecturer in history at [[University of Auckland|Auckland University College]], but within months the position was abolished in a retrenchment by the college council. Many believed the decision was due more to the college's reaction to Beaglehole's reputation (albeit exaggerated) for radicalism.<ref name="DNZB John Beaglehole">{{DNZB|Beaglehole |Tim |5b16|Beaglehole, John Cawte |28 April 2012||Tim Beaglehole}}</ref> His academic career finally took off in 1934 after the publication of his first major book, ''The Exploration of the Pacific'', after which he developed his specialist interest in James Cook. He became lecturer, later professor, at the Victoria University College.

He married Elsie Mary Holmes on 17 February 1930, and they had three sons.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Beaglehole 2006, p. 152.</ref>

==Editing Cook's journals==

Beaglehole became known internationally for his work on Cook's journals which brought out his great gifts as historian and editor. It was not all desk work among the archives – he also travelled widely in Cook's wake, from [[Whitby]] to [[Tahiti]], to [[Tonga]] and to the [[New Hebrides]]. The four volumes of the journals that emerged between 1955 and 1967 were subsidised by the New Zealand government which also set up a special research post for their author. The sheer size of these tomes, each of them approaching 1,000 pages, may seem disconcerting at first sight, but they are enlivened by Beaglehole's stylish and often witty introductions, intended to set the journals in their contexts. As well as Cook's own journals Beaglehole also printed, either entire or in lengthy extracts, the journals of several of Cook's colleagues on the voyages. The introductions themselves, together with copious footnotes, reveal the breadth of his erudition. They cover many topics, ranging from the structure of Polynesian society to oceanography, navigation, cartography, and much else.

Much of the zoological and botanical notes for Beaglehole's work on James Cook's three voyages were provided by Dr [[Averil Margaret Lysaght]].<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Clement|editor1-first=Christine|editor2-last=Johnston|editor2-first=Judith|title=Women of South Taranaki, their stories = Nga wahine toa o Taranaki tonga, o ratou korero|date=1993|publisher=Hawera Suffrage Centennial Local History Group|location=Hawera|isbn=047302046-7|page=182}}</ref>

Cook's journals themselves had never before been comprehensively and accurately presented to the public, and to do so required enormous research since copies and fragments of the journals and related material were scattered in various archives in London, Australia and New Zealand. For his edition, Beaglehole sought out the various surviving holographs in Cook's own hand in preference to copies by his clerks on board ship, and others. For the first voyage, the voyage of the ''[[HM Bark Endeavour|Endeavour]]'', he used mainly the manuscript journal<ref>[http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms1 Cook, James, 1728–1779. Journal of the H.M.S. Endeavour, 1768–1771 manuscript.]</ref> held in the [[National Library of Australia]] at Canberra. This only came to light in 1923, when the heirs of a [[Teesside]] ironmaster, Henry Bolckow, put it up for sale. Bolckow had purchased this manuscript at an earlier auction, in 1868, but had not made his ownership widely known, and consequently it was assumed for many years that no such holograph existed. For the second voyage Beaglehole used two other partial journals in Cook's hand, both of which had the same early history as the ''Endeavour'' journal. All three had probably once been owned by Cook's widow, and sold by a relation of hers at the 1868 auction. The difference was that the two partial journals from the second voyage were then purchased by the [[British Museum]] and not by Bolckow, and hence had long been available for public consultation. And for the third voyage Beaglehole's main source was a journal written, and much revised, by Cook up to early January 1779, a month before he died. What happened to the final month's entries, which must certainly have been made, is uncertain.<ref>Glyn Williams: ''The Death of Captain Cook'', Profile Books, 2008</ref> This, too, is today in the [[British Library]], the successor to the British Museum as a manuscript repository.

All students of Cook owe an enormous debt to Beaglehole for his all-encompassing editorship. So much so, in fact, that today it is difficult to view the subject of Cook except through Beaglehole's perspective. Some recent biographies of Cook have tended to be little else than abbreviated versions of Beaglehole.<ref>For a discussion of some recent books on Cook see Glyndwr Williams, 'Reassessing Cook' in ''Captain Cook: Explorations and Reassessments'', ed. G. Williams, London, The Boydell Press, 2004</ref> Nevertheless, it is also clear that Beaglehole’s work is, by and large, a continuation of the long tradition of Cook idealisation, a tradition from which post-Beaglehole scholarship has started to diverge.<ref>Nicholas Thomas: page xxxvi. ''Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook'', London, Allen Lane, 2003</ref>  For Beaglehole, Cook was an heroic figure who practically could do no wrong, and he is scathing about those contemporaries of Cook who ever ventured to criticise his hero, such as [[Alexander Dalrymple]], the geographer, and [[Johann Reinhold Forster]], who accompanied Cook on the second voyage. Recent research has to some extent rehabilitated both Dalrymple and Forster.<ref>For the rehabilitation see Andrew Cook's introduction to the reissue of Dalrymple's ''An Account of the Discoveries made in the South Pacific Ocean'', Sydney, 1996; also, Michael E. Hoare (ed.), ''The Tactless Philosopher: Johann Reinhold Forster [1729–98]'', Wellington NZ, 1979</ref>

==Honours and awards==
In the [[1958 Birthday Honours (New Zealand)|1958 Queen's Birthday Honours]], Beaglehole was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George]], for services in the fields of historical research and literature.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=41406 |date=12 June 1958 |page=3553 |supp=3}}</ref> During his last decade, Beaglehole was showered with honorary degrees from universities at home and abroad and other distinctions. Perhaps the most prestigious was the award in 1970 of the British [[Order of Merit]]. He was only the second New Zealander ever to receive this award, the first being the nuclear physicist [[Ernest Rutherford]].

In 1969 he was awarded the [[Mueller Medal]] by the [[Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20090925233041/http://anzaas.org.au/mueller.html ANZAAS > Mueller Medal Recipients (1904-2005)] archive.is Retrieved 12 February 2025.</ref>

==Later life and death==
Just before he died in 1971 Beaglehole was in the process of revising his detailed and authoritative biography of Cook, which was subsequently prepared for publication by his son [[Tim Beaglehole|Tim]], who was Chancellor and Emeritus Professor at [[Victoria University of Wellington|Victoria]].<ref>[http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/council/membersprofiles.aspx#chancellor Chancellor] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304201523/http://www.victoria.ac.nz/home/about/council/membersprofiles.aspx |date= 4 March 2010 }}</ref>

== Archival collections at Victoria University==

Beaglehole's ''alma mater'', the [[Victoria University of Wellington]], named its archival collections<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.victoria.ac.nz/library/collections/jcbr/index.html |title=J.C. Beaglehole Room |work=library.victoria.ac.nz |year=2011 |access-date=2 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111013071247/http://library.victoria.ac.nz/library/collections/jcbr/index.html |archive-date=13 October 2011 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> after him, in the reading room of which is displayed his portrait, by [[W.A. Sutton]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library/collections/jcbr/jcb-history.aspx |title=John Cawte Beaglehole – a history |year=2011 |access-date=2 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081018142624/http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library/collections/jcbr/jcb-history.aspx |archive-date=18 October 2008 }}</ref> The J.C. Beaglehole Room, as it is known, was moved into a completely new space in 2011.<ref>{{cite web|year=2011|title=Welcome to the blog of the J.C.Beaglehole Room|url=https://library.victoria.ac.nz/blogs/jcbr/2011/06/hello-world/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120020700/http://library.victoria.ac.nz/blogs/jcbr/2011/06/hello-world/|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 November 2012|access-date=24 September 2020|work=library.victoria.ac.nz}}</ref>

==Works==
*''The Exploration of the Pacific'', London, A. & C. Black, 1934.
*ed., ''The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768–1771'', [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bea01Bank.html vol 1] & [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bea02Bank.html vol 2]., Sydney, 1962.
*ed., ''The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768–1771'', Cambridge, 1955, reprinted 1968.
*ed., ''The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure, 1772–1775'', Cambridge, 1961, reprinted 1969.
*ed., ''The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, 1776–1780'', 2 vols., Cambridge, 1967.
*''[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Bea04Cook.html The Life of Captain James Cook]'', Stanford, California, 1974.
*''[https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BeaDeat.html The Death of Captain Cook]''. Wellington, NZ, Alexander Turnbull Library, 1979.

==See also==
*[[Beaglehole Glacier]] in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after him.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |title='I Think I am becoming a New Zealander': Letters of J.C. Beaglehole |publisher=Victoria University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780864739025 |editor-last=Beaglehole |editor-first=Tim |location=}}
* Tim Beaglehole, "Beaglehole, John Cawte (1901–1971)", ''The Captain Cook Encyclopaedia'', ed. John Robson, London, Chatham Publishing, 2004.
* Doug Munro, "J.C. Beaglehole—Public intellectual, critical consciences", ''The Ivory Tower and Beyond : Participant Historians of the Pacific'', Newcastle upon Tyne, [[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]], 2009, pp.&nbsp;15–76.

==External links==
* [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-207379.html John Cawte Beaglehole at the NZ Electronic Text Centre], 12 August 1926 – 3 November 1927
* [http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-RenCrea-t1-body-d3-d8.html J. C. Beaglehole and the design of the (1940) Centennial publications]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaglehole, John Cawte}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1971 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:New Zealand Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:People educated at Wellington College, Wellington]]
[[Category:Historians of the Pacific]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand historians]]
[[Category:New Zealand maritime historians]]
[[Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Victoria University of Wellington]]
[[Category:New Zealand members of the Order of Merit]]
[[Category:20th-century New Zealand male writers]]
[[Category:Beaglehole family|John]]