Gerhardt Laves

Gerhardt Laves (15/7/1906–14/3/1993)

Gerhardt Laves, as a University of Chicago postgraduate student, spent 1929-1931 in fieldwork on Australian Aboriginal languages.
His extensive collection of good quality material, almost all unpublished, has been preserved and in recent years has had considerable use.

NB: The family pronounce the surname [ˈlavəs]

Wikipedia entry
research interest in Laves' collection
Laves' manuscripts and other records

AIATSIS Library Laves manuscript collection

Papers, Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. Guide to the Gerhardt Laves Papers 1916-1982 (18 pages, 2022) and https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.LAVESG#id21 particularly records of the Bardi language, and photographs from Australia https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.LAVESG#id22
correspondence

correspondence etc in University of Sydney Archives Elkin collection

Laves' letters from Australia, at University of Chicago Regenstein Library

1930-31 correspondence with Raymond Firth at LSE

1938 correspondence in JP Harrington papers

National Library of Australia Australian National Research Council Records

sound recordings, at Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music and AIATSIS
artefact collection, at National Museum of Australia
Laves' notation

Laves other notes

on phonetic symbols, including discussion with NB Tindale
? bookshop correspondence, 1941 Nov 10, at Yale Archives YCAL MSS 427, Series I; Box: 7, Folder: 252

1932 Report fragments

digitised manuscript records

Anjumarla notes (HTML)
Mayi-Thakurti (Medaguri, Cloncurry) notes (PDF text)
Athima notes and discussion by Barry Alpher
2021 AIATSIS June Newsletter: 'Gerhardt Laves Collection preserved for future generations … This digitalisation of the Laves Collection involved the preservation and mastering of more than 27,500 pages of papers consisting mainly of field notebooks, correspondence and language cards. The project will now enter a quality assurance stage before being completed and shared with traditional owners.'

by Laves relating to Australia
by others drawing on Laves' work

unpublished mentions of Laves

in Elkin's letters, University of Sydney Archives Elkin collection
in D.S. Davidson letter to Tindale
NB Tindale note on Laves

biography

obituary

workshop, Sydney, 8 December 2000

Laves’ Centenary 2006 blog post by Claire Bowern

View comments made (last: June 1999)

Australian languages page

© 2003 David Nash
Created: 25 September 1998
Modified: 13 May 2026, 13 July 2021
URL: http://www0.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/aust/laves/index.html